Garry's Mod creator responds to Gmod Kickstarter, prepared to fight in court

Gmod developer Olympus Games launched a Kickstarter for its mod library, tracking and creation platform back in April, but we've only just stumbled across it. It is not to be confused with Garry Newman's 'Garry's Mod' tool. Newman has discussed the conflicts and similarities between both platforms with VG247.

Gmod is an platform that allows users to create clear libraries of mods they own, create their own mods and track news from the modding community - among other things. The Gmod Kickstarter currently sits at $13,153 pledged of its $75,000 goal with 17 days left.

While it may appear to be a rip-off of the 'GMod' name used by Garry's Mod, Newman told VG247 that Olympus Games actually owns the name.

"It's actually the other way around. They own the trademark for 'gmod' and have threatened to take us to court if we don't other buy it off them - along with all their domains and Twitter accounts - or post a press release pointing out we're not affiliated, along with a permanent link on garrysmod.com and our twitter, and force the community not to abbreviate Garry's Mod to GMod."

Regardless of who registered the 'Gmod' name first, Newman explained that Olympus Games' argument is that he is intruding on their brand and causing confusion by bearing a similar name.

However, Newman argued the opposite, and said, "We would argue that it's the opposite - people see their site and think 'Is this Garry's Mod?'. Also, Garry's Mod pre-dates their trademark, as does the abbreviation of Garry's Mod to GMod. As a bonus our game is called Garry's Mod - not GMod. It's only occasionally abbreviated to GMod out of convenience".

Newman is prepared to take the issue down a legal route if necessary as he feels Olympus should have changed the name years ago to avoid such confusion.

"In my opinion he should have rebranded years ago. I have no idea why he would even call it GMod. If he wants to take us to court over it we will fight it because we don't believe we're doing anything wrong, but I really don't think that people are donating to his Kickstarter to pay for lawyers".

There you have it folks. Should Olympus Games take Newman to task over the natural shortening of his Garry's Mod tool, or should they have rebranded it in kind? Let us know below.

UPDATE: Olympus Games has responded with its own take on events, emphasising its friendly intentions and preferring to rebrand than go to court.