Back to: Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis

spinball
 
Category: Naming
Reference: 3225
Closed (accepted) by: Hiccup.
orkoapprentice » 2017-02-01 09:27:32

"Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball" should just be referred to as "Sonic Spinball." Here are my reasons:

1. The U.S. Trademark and Copyright offices (respectively) have the game listed as "Sonic Spinball." The variant "Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball" has neither been trademarked nor copyrighted.

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4810:9kp6hk.4.1
http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=sonic+spinball&Search_Code=TALL&PID=kfe31cFet5ZaPU7iV_zH_rxpZ6n8haZ&SEQ=20170128145742&CNT=25&HIST=1

2. The legal notice on the back of the Genesis box AND user manual refers to the game as "Sonic Spinball."
http://info.sonicretro.org/index.php?title=File:SonicSpinball_MD_US_manual.pdf&page=24

3. The iOS version (no longer available) had the game listed as "Sonic Spinball."

4. Television advertising referred to the game as "Sonic Spinball."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKRKYtgtf8

Hiccup » 2017-02-04 06:36:57

Another one: the "the hedgehog" text on the cover is very small compared to the "Sonic Spinball" text, so I think it is open to interpretation. I've changed the title