There’s an app on the Google Play Store titled “Game Shop Engine” sold by “jMonkeyGames Inc” for $999:
While building and selling an engine on top of jME is totally within the BSD license, the name “jMonkeyGames Inc” is likely to cause confusion. It strongly implies official endorsement or that they represent the jME project.
Google provides a way to report potential trademark confusion, but it must be submitted by the trademark owner or an authorized representative. Since jME may not have a registered trademark, I’m not sure who (if anyone) holds the rights to the name.
Even though jMonkeyEngine may not have a registered trademark (e.g. with USPTO), it likely holds common law trademark rights due to longstanding, continuous use of the name in the public domain. These rights don’t require formal registration, and they still protect against misleading uses that could cause confusion about the project’s identity, affiliation, or endorsement.
This was first pointed out by a user on the discord who said they saw this person requesting donations in another discord server, and I also browsed their associated twitter account which appeared to share a lot of NSFW content as well as some controversial opinions and statements regarding race and similar things that I presume we definitely do not want anyone to mistake as being official statements from jme or its leadership.
So I am curious to know how the community and engine leaders feel we should move forward with this. I would like to give the person in question the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a negligent mistake to name their company “JMonkeyEngine Inc” and all issues can be resolved if the name is changed. So if this person is lurking around on the forums, it would be great to talk to you so we can resolve this amicably.
Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
The user who pointed it out on discord said they reported them on github.
And I started looking into the process to report for trademark violation on the google play store, but it reached a point where it asked if I was “the owner of the brand” or “their official legal representative” of which I am neither, so I didn’t proceed.
I think that @sgold@pspeed@Darkchaos or @RiccardoBlb may need to make the report there, considering they are the ones listed as owners on jme’s github organization.
I did also just find a post from the jme user in question and I requested that they change their company name, apparently they did post here about their app once in the past. But if they don’t reply then an engine leader with more authority would need to move forward with the report on Google Play.
After browsing a bit, considering the code on github i would rule out an ex dev.
Considering all his past side hustle tries i would not even go as far as speaking of intentional name infringement.
Maybe delusional or something in that realm.
As far as I know, “JMonkeyEngine” isn’t a registered trademark. In many jurisdictions, a trademark can be created without registration, simply by using the mark in commerce. However, I’ve never seen it used with a TM or SM superscript that would indicate trademark intent. And I question whether publishing free software counts as commerce.
If someone outside the project is removing the copyright notice from our code and/or using “JMonkeyEngine” to endorse or promote their product, then they’ve violated our BSD license and the usual remedies of copyright law come into play.
it was a negligent mistake to name their company “JMonkeyEngine Inc”
As far as I can see, they haven’t done so. I see a “JMonkeyGames Inc” account at GitHub, but that’s hardly the same thing.
So I am curious to know how the community and engine leaders feel we should move forward
If you think its not an issue then I’ll drop this topic, however I personally felt that this is something that shouldn’t be ignored. So the last few things I’ll say on this:
The PlayStore listing states that their company is JmonkeyGames Inc., and a google search of “Jmonkey Games Inc” returns the jme game showcase followed by multiple official jme pages as the first results. While most people will likely be smart enough to realize this is a different organization, there will inevitably be some laymen who do not realize and will gain some unwarranted trust for their app on the play store.
This person has also already proven that they are willing to lie and claim that they “helped to make jmonkey engine” without providing any proof (see the quote in my last post). The user on discord who notified me of this issue also said that this person was “begging for donations” (in their words) in another discord server.
And lastly, their extremely high pricing and 50% revenue split for their GameShopEngine is (in my opinion) unethical and, all things considered, appears to be verging on the line of being a scam. They are charging substantially more than unreal engine and unity combined.
So in my opinion, all signs keep pointing towards this being unethical behavior (regardless of whether it was intentional or due to negligence) which is the primary reason I felt this should be brought up.
Assuming for a moment that there was a “jMonkeyEngine” organization as a legal entity capable of enforcing a trademark. And assuming that legal entity had registered the trademark and/or done the minimum to protect that trademark (like putting a TM in the logos and stuff)… this would likely 100% be trademark infringement if we took it to court. They are using a brand that is “confusingly similar” to an established brand.
However, because of all of the “assuming” above, it is not so clear cut now.
It’s very unfortunate. It is a confusing branding. It likely paints this engine in a bad light. We can only hope that the non-legal means that they community are pursuing cause that actor to rethink the name.
And based on what I’ve seen so far from GameShop, JMonkeyGames, and Lynden Jay Evans, I suspect he’s in more danger from dissatisfied customers than from us!
Have we considered registering the jMonkeyEngine name as a trademark?
My wife is currently facing a somewhat similar situation. She has been running a business since 2022 under a specific name, which includes social media activity, webinars, in-person meetings, and a dedicated domain name.
Suddenly, a famous doctor launched a business with the exact same name—offering similar services—and has significantly more funds for marketing. He went ahead and officially registered the name and is now demanding that she stop using it. We filed an objection to the trademark registration, but it’s now a lengthy legal process, and the court is expected to decide in a few months.
What I’m trying to say is: if it’s possible, I believe it’s worth making the (relatively small, at least in my country) investment to register the jMonkeyEngine name. It can help avoid costly disputes like this in the future.
