Iron Maiden files lawsuit against makers of ‘Ion Maiden’ video game

The $2 million lawsuit takes aim at creators of the 'Duke Nukem' franchise.

Iron Maiden have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the video game Ion Maiden.

The legendary heavy metal band, via their holding company, have filed a $2 million lawsuit against developer 3D Realms over their video game Ion Maiden, according to the Daily Beast.

Launched Thursday (May 30), Iron Maiden’s case claims 3D Realms – known best as the creators of the Duke Nukem video game franchise – aimed “incredibly blatant” trademark infringement at the band with the similarly named video game title. The lawsuit alleges that Ion Maiden would cause “confusion among customers.”

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“Defendant’s Ion Maiden name is nearly identical to the Iron Maiden trademark in appearance, sound and overall commercial impression,” a portion of the lawsuit reads. “Defendant also uses the Ion Maiden name to sell merchandise including shirts and mouse pads.”

The lawsuit also takes the company to task for allegedly naming an Ion Maiden character after band founder Steve Harris and reworking Iron Maiden’s iconic logo, while also highlighting the fact that the band have their own video game, Legacy of the Beast.

Here’s another excerpt from the lawsuit:

“That evidence includes the fact that Defendant has exhibited its intent to trade off on the Iron Maiden mark by adopting Shelly Harrison as the name of its main character which is an attempt to copy the name of Steve Harris, an Iron Maiden founder and primary songwriter; adopting a similar steel cut font for its Ion Maiden name knowing that Iron Maiden also uses a steel cut font for its iconic Iron Maiden mark; creating a video game that has the same look and feel as the Iron Maiden video game, Legacy Of The Beast; and choosing to use its Ion Maiden Yellow Bomb emoji in its Ion Maiden video game and merchandise which is graphically similar to Iron Maiden’s Eddie character who appears in all of Iron Maiden’s video games and virtually all of Iron Maiden’s compact disc covers, t-shirts and other merchandise.”

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Last year, a report revealed how much money Iron Maiden have received from ticket sales over the year.

The legendary rockers have toured significantly since their reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith in 1999.

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