It’s been a month since The Day Before was unceremoniously banned by Steam and its developer Fntastic took to Twitter (opens in new tab) to announce that it had been removed “at the request of a private individual” and promised to “definitely resolve everything”. A little while later, with everything definitely not resolved, Fntastic released a statement (opens in new tab) identifying its new arch-nemesis, stating “The so-called ‘owner’ of the rights to the title is the creator of the calendar app, which has nothing to do with the games category.”
Well, two can play the public declaration game, because now the developer of the calendar app TheDayBefore has spoken to Eurogamer. TheDayBefore notes that they “first distributed the app under the name ‘The Day Before’ in 2010,” which is easily confirmed by checking their Google Play page (opens in new tab)—and has owned the South Korean trademark for the title since 2015. After “Knowing that the game with the same name was created,” owners of the calendar app began “taking steps to protect trademark rights,” such as registering for a US trademark (opens in new tab) in 2021.
The calendar app told Eurogamer that it currently owns copyright for “The Day Before” in “Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, Vietnam and the European Union,” which sounds like hell for Fntastic’s lawyers . unpick and that she’s willing to put the trademark dispute behind her so fans of the app can “use it without worry.” I don’t know that the 40+ million people who have downloaded the calendar app actually care enough about its copyright to “concern” about it, exactly, but I guess it’s the thought that counts.
All of this makes the Fntastic and The Day Before situation seem a bit more absurd than it already was. When the studio first announced that it was experiencing trademark issues, it only said that the US rights to its name had lapsed in 2021, something it then didn’t realize until January of this year. However, the calendar app company has owned the brand in Korea for eight years and has been a Google search away for over a decade.
In fairness, Fntastic’s complaint that a calendar app “has nothing to do with the gaming category” isn’t really invalid. I doubt there’s any serious risk of the public confusing both products, and certainly the people behind the app saw an opportunity when the game was announced and took it. But the fact remains that the well-documented existence of software with the exact same name as Fntastic’s game has been easy to find for over a decade and apparently never gave anyone at the studio pause.