The author of that article is incredibly ignorant, misinformed and gullible and the editorial staff for the site reaches a new low in standards for journalism. The
Redguard hoax was exposed several days before the article was even published.
The fact that the author speaks as if the name of the DLC is conclusively Redguard only makes him or her look like an idiot. Other authors of speculative articles about the next DLC being called Redguard were at least guarded and cautious and didn't refer to the remote possibility as if it were fact.
Here's the actual truth about the Redguard trademark filing based on facts and actual knowledge of how the trademark registration process works with the United States Patent and Trademark Office rather than the ignorant, poorly researched and wildly speculative writing of psuedo internet journalists that have been perpetuating the myth of a Redguard DLC for Skyrim:
The Redguard trademark application has nothing to do with any DLC for Skyrim.
It was originally filed in 2007. Zenimax Media, Inc., Bethesda's parent company, originally was granted a trademark registration for the Elder Scrolls stand-alone game
Redguard in 2000. You can't maintain a trademark unless you're actually distributing/selling the associated product, i.e. the trademarked product has to be used in commerce. For the
Redguard trademark a declaration of continued use would have to have been filed sometime in 2006 or the USPTO would cancel it shortly thereafter. Bethesda wasn't using the trademarked product in 2006. It could have delayed the cancellation by attempting to file a declaration of excusable non-use but those are rarely accepted so, not surprisingly, the mark was cancelled by the USPTO in 2007.
In 2007 Zenimax reapplied for the trademark registration and added an additional class of use (IC 041 Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line interactive computer games and providing information relating to electronic computer games via the internet) so its use by distribution through the internet would also be a protected use. But....remember that pesky use in commerce requirement? You can file a trademark application without it in what's commonly referred to as an intent to use application, but you have to follow up with evidence of the actual use in commerce afterwards or the application will eventually be deemed abandoned. An applicant has 30 months to file that evidence by using up all its extensions which is what Zenimax did by 2011, after which it had to abandon the application because it still hadn't reintroduced
Redguard into the stream of commerce.
So in 2011 after it had to abandon the 2007 trademark application, Zenimax submitted
the exact same application again
8 months before Skyrim was even released. It's been filing extensions ever since.
Anything is possible regarding the content of the next DLC but the
Redguard trademark application has nothing to do with it.
