According to Slashdot (I later confirmed the finding in the USPTO), Electronic Arts has filed a request to cancel its ownership of The Bard's Tale. At the same time, INXILE Entertainment, a new company founded by Brian fargo after he got fired by Interplay, has applied for the ownership. Seems like manipulating the rights to old games has suddenly become fashionable...

A 'request to cancel ownership'? What's that? It's not a regular transfer of the rights, is it?

This game (Bards Tale) is one of me top 3 of all time, and i remember it as a 10 year old on my spectrum fighting my way through the Wine Cellars and Catacombs and knowing how to get past the 'stone golem' who is 'two-fold'...whatever that means.

Forgive me for being a bit abrupt here but...The fact that some corporate wankers are playing around saying they want to 'cancel ownership' of the game fills me with such a violent streak that I could commit serious crimes against humanity. I am going to end this post now before my blood pressure rises to the point I have an instant heart attack.

RPGs are kind of underrepresented on TGOD you know.... I'm so subtle!

I don't know how exactly the process works, but I have the impression that when you transfer ownership, you've got to cancel your ownership with the US trademark office, and the other side has to apply for ownership. Some companies may want to publicize such deal (the way Infogrames did that), and some may want to keep quiet, for whatever reason they have. In both cases, I believe that you need to do the same steps, though.

In that case, the original owner can't actually control to whom this trademark goes, can he? As soon as his rights have been dropped, anyone could apply...

Well, considering that Fargo's company already applied for those rights, I would assume that the USPTO has some procedures in place that would assure the simultaneous transfer from one owner to the next, without a risk of a third party stepping in and snatching the trademark.