Take-Two and Rockstar have dismissed the lawsuit the two jointly filed against Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, ending a legal dispute that sprung up in response to Red Dead Redemption 2’s in-game use of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
The voluntary dismissal was spotted by GameDaily earlier today, and notes that both Take-Two and Rockstar have “voluntarily dismissed” the lawsuit they filed against Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations and Pinkerton Service Corporation in January.
The Take-Two lawsuit was in response to one filed by Pinkerton against both game companies around that same time. In a statement given to GamesIndustry, Take-Two confirmed that Pinkerton “has withdrawn its claims against Red Dead Redemption 2, and Take-Two will not continue legal action against Pinkerton.”
Pinkerton’s original lawsuit accused Take-Two and Rockstar of violating its trademark on the Pinkerton name by making the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and Pinkerton agents prominent parts of the story of its 2018 release Red Dead Redemption 2.
Take-Two and Rockstar’s countersuit, meanwhile, alleged that the real-world Pinkertons were over-extending their rights over the name and that Rockstar’s references to the historical Pinkerton National Detective Agency were protected under the First Amendment.
“Put simply, Defendants cannot use trademark law to own the past and prevent creators from including historical references to Pinkerton agents in depictions of the American West,” said that original filing.