14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Monolith Productions' hit No One Lives Forever instantly spawned a cult following when it came out in 2000, due mainly to its humorous take on the spy shooter genre.
About a year ago, Activision revealed that the licensing rights to the No One Lives Forever franchise were no longer with them, and Monolith Productions apparently didn't have them either, which led to speculation regarding the possibility of a third party holding the rights and waiting for the right time to re-release the series.
The news has just surfaced that Night Dive Studios, a company best known for republishing classic PC titles such as System Shock 2, has filed trademarks for several games in the franchise, namely No One Lives Forever, The Operative, Contract J.A.C.K. and A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, as reported by Siliconera.
The interesting bit here is that trademarks are simply the rights to use certain terms, symbols and phrases associated with a certain intellectual property, and it seems unlikely that the company would be able to file the aforementioned trademarks without the copyrights for the source work itself being in their property.
"At this time we are unable to comment on future plans. I would like to add that our team has a great fondness for these games and our hope is that they will one day be re-released," Night Dive Studios CEO Stephen Kick commented on the matter.