In context: Epic and Nreal had previously been fighting quietly over the similarity between the "Nreal" and "Unreal" brands, but discussions of a settlement ultimately failed. Epic is at present taking the matter to court, but as Nreal is working on launching its augmented reality headset in the US.

Ballsy Games currently has its hands decorated with the trial confronting Apple and its alleged App Store monopoly, which has proven to be an countless debate over what constitutes a game, non to mention an exposé of the Cupertino behemothic's efforts throughout the years to promote in-app purchases and subscriptions, as 80 percent of that revenue stream is said to be turn a profit.

However, Epic is fix to go to great lengths to protect its brand against all the things it deems a threat. Last calendar week, the company sued Nreal, a Chinese manufacturer of augmented reality headsets, alleging the latter is infringing on its Unreal Engine trademark.

Specifically, Epic believes "Nreal" sounds too much like "Unreal," and looks visually identical to the average person, which could cause confusion. That might exist a bit of a stretch, but Ballsy is seeking damages for the harm to its make -- the company claims it has "has ten registrations for 'Unreal' alone or in connection with some other term for a wide range of appurtenances and services including but not limited to software, video games, virtual worlds, and 3D visualizations, animations, and platforms."

The timing of this is interesting, equally Nreal is planning to expand to the US afterwards this year. Ballsy and Nreal don't compete in the aforementioned market, just their goals do intersect as the one-time is pushing the Unreal Engine as a keen way to build experiences for augmented reality, and the latter is focused on building an affordable hardware platform to deliver those experiences to a wide consumer audience.

Previously, Nreal has had to defend against Magic Leap, who claimed that Nreal CEO and founder Chi Xu is a sometime employee that had stolen intellectual property before embarking on his new venture. That lawsuit was dismissed final yr.

Nreal's trademark awarding in the United states is pending, but Epic is looking to obtain an injunction to deny its approval. In the concurrently, Nreal appears to be preparing for an announcement on May 20, perchance related to its Light AR headset. The visitor is said to exist targeting a cost of around $500-$600, which is similar to what it sells for in Republic of korea, where information technology fabricated its debut in 2022.