It's been close to a year since Warner Bros bought the Mortal Kombat franchise from Midway Games. Now according to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Warner Bros finally got three Trademarks covering the Mortal Kombat brand approved mid-March. Warner's new MORTAL KOMBAT trademarks cover everything from video games, comic books, novels, online articles, Halloween costumes, t-shirts, socks and even lingerie. It's even more comprensive than the older Midway Games owned Trademarks, which are no longer valid. Covering their bases you can say.

Now while we don't expect them to be making Mortal Kombat brand lingerie, it is very possible this is a sign we'll be seeing a lot of new Mortal Kombat related merchandise coming from Warner Bros in the future. While looking at the t-shirt sections of stores like Target, Kohls and Hot Topic recently I noticed a lot of Warner owned properties on T-Shirts. So it's likely you'll soon see Mortal Kombat merchandise everywhere once again like back in the mid 90s. Like the recent Hospitality parody Mortal Kombat shirt on Woot. I'm fairly certain that we will see Mortal Kombat products on Warner's vast WB Shop later this year, so keep your eyes peeled!

Below are the trademark images courtesy of the US Patent and Trademark Office. Click to enlarge and read them in detail.


Mortal Kombat Games Trademark



Mortal Kombat Games and Writing Trademark



Mortal Kombat Clothing Trademark



We hope getting this Trademark cleared is a sign we'll see marketing for Mortal Kombat 9 to begin later this month, like rumored. We have our fingers crossed!

Thanks to friend and forum member pebkac for sending us this tip.

Gaming blog Superannuation earlier today discovered that Warner Bros. recently filed for a few new trademarks (1,2, 3) for the name "Netherrealm Studios." The trademarks all cover the use of the name on a gaming studio:

Designing and developing computer game software and video game software for use with computers, video game program systems and computer networks.

Entertainment services, namely, providing online video and computer games; publishing interactive computer and video game software; providing a computer game that may be accessed by a telecommunications network.

So I did some more digging and found that Warner Bros also registered the domain netherrealmstudios.com. While the website isn't currently running, it matches the information found on other Warner Bros. owned domains.

Domain Name: NETHERREALMSTUDIOS.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: [url]http://www.markmonitor.com
Name Server: NS.WARNERBROS.COM
Name Server: NS2.WARNERBROS.COM
Updated Date: 26-jan-2010
Creation Date: 26-jan-2010
Expiration Date: 26-jan-2012

Since Netherrealm is a known place in the Mortal Kombat universe, this falls into line perfectly with our previous editorial about WB Games Chicago getting a new name. So since Warner Bros. went through the trouble to register the trademark and domain names I would be fairly certain to say that Netherrealm Studios will be the new name of the Warner Bros. Games studio based in Chicago responsible for the Mortal Kombat series, as well as other games they create. It's likely we'll likely see this name revealed along with the first reveal of Mortal Kombat 9. I for one can say I really like the name, best of luck to Netherrealm Studios!

Updated 4/19/2010: It seems Warner Bros also registered NETHERREALM-STUDIOS.COM as can be seen by the domain registration:

Domain Name: NETHERREALM-STUDIOS.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: [url]http://www.markmonitor.com
Name Server: NS.WARNERBROS.COM
Name Server: NS2.WARNERBROS.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 26-jan-2010
Creation Date: 26-jan-2010
Expiration Date: 26-jan-2012

Like netherrealmstudios.com it too is not active yet. There is also a what appears to be fake website similar to this domain name that is misspelled with only one R, netherealm-studios.com. It features a makeshift logo along with the words "Coming Soon." This website is not owned or running on the Warner Bros network so we believe it to be fake or just an odd coincidence.