Author: AISLOP Research Project Date: 14 May 2026 Citation style: Harvard Topic: December 2023 trademark applications submitted by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering the name, logo and associated marks of Grand Theft Auto VI.
On 4 December 2023, hours after Rockstar Games released the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, parent company Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. lodged a coordinated cluster of trademark applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These filings were intended to lock down the verbal mark, the stylised wordmark, and the now-iconic logo combining the words "Grand Theft Auto" with a Roman numeral "VI" — including the variant featuring palm trees embedded inside the numeral that appeared on the trailer's closing card (USPTO.report, 2023a; USPTO.report, 2023b). This report surveys the public USPTO record for those December 2023 filings, identifies the principal serial numbers and goods/services classes claimed, and contextualises the strategy within Take-Two's wider intellectual property practice. It draws on three categories of source material: (i) the publicly available Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) abstractions republished by USPTO.report and Justia Trademarks, (ii) commercial trademark databases including Trademarkia, Bizapedia and Trademark Elite, and (iii) the Wikipedia editorial record of the trailer's release timeline (Wikipedia, 2026). British English spellings are used throughout.
The trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI was uploaded to YouTube during the evening of 4 December 2023 (United States Eastern Standard Time), bringing forward a planned 5 December reveal after a low-quality leak appeared on social media (Wikipedia, 2026). The same calendar day, Take-Two's outside counsel filed at least five separate intent-to-use applications at the USPTO. Public records identify the following serial numbers, each owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., of New York, NY:
Across these applications the marks are divided between standard-character word marks (claiming the textual string "GRAND THEFT AUTO VI" without reference to font, colour or stylisation) and special-form design marks (claiming the graphical logo, including the palm-tree-infilled Roman numeral). Filing parallel word and design marks is a conventional defensive technique: the word mark protects the name irrespective of typography, whilst the design mark protects the specific visual rendering that consumers will associate with the product (Trademark Elite, 2023).
The classes claimed by Take-Two reflect the breadth of the Grand Theft Auto commercial ecosystem rather than merely the base video game. International Class 9 captures the downloadable and recorded software itself plus ancillary digital goods such as ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and multimedia files (Justia Trademarks, 2023a). International Class 41 protects the online services side: hosted gameplay, official websites, news, tips, contests and audio-visual content — language that is plainly designed to cover both the eventual single-player title and any successor to Grand Theft Auto Online (Justia Trademarks, 2023b). The applications were filed on an "intent to use" basis under Section 1(b) of the Lanham Act, which is the standard route for marks tied to a product that has been announced but not yet placed in commerce, and which permits the applicant to lock in priority from the filing date while reserving a window to demonstrate use upon commercial release (USPTO.report, 2023a; Trademark Elite, 2023). Given that the game was at that point scheduled for a 2025 release window (subsequently delayed to 19 November 2026 per Wikipedia, 2026), the intent-to-use route gave Take-Two a multi-year runway to convert the applications into registrations once Grand Theft Auto VI ships.
Several features of the December 2023 cluster deserve emphasis. First, the same-day timing — applications filed within hours of the trailer's release — is consistent with Take-Two's previous practice on flagship Rockstar titles and minimises the window within which squatters and bad-faith filers could pre-empt the marks (Trademark Elite, 2023). Second, the separation of the palm-tree logo variant into its own serial number (98298438) reflects the centrality of that imagery to the Grand Theft Auto VI brand identity: the Roman numeral with embedded palm trees is the dominant device on the boxart that Rockstar subsequently used for merchandising and store listings (USPTO.report, 2023b; Wikipedia, 2026). Third, the breadth of goods and services claimed — encompassing not only the software but downloadable digital collateral, online services, contests and audio-visual programming — signals that Take-Two is preparing for a transmedia rollout, including potential streaming or film tie-ins consistent with industry analysts' expectation that Grand Theft Auto VI will be the highest-grossing entertainment launch of all time (Wikipedia, 2026). Finally, the existence of the TTAB record under Take-Two's name confirms that the company actively polices these marks through opposition and cancellation proceedings, with more than one hundred matters logged at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board as of mid-2026 (USPTO TTABVUE, 2026).
The December 2023 USPTO filings constitute the legal foundation upon which Take-Two is building the global commercial rollout of Grand Theft Auto VI. By filing at least six parallel applications on 4 December 2023 — covering the standard-character wordmark, the palm-tree-and-Roman-numeral design mark, and several goods/services class combinations — the publisher secured priority from the moment of public reveal, pre-empted typosquatters and copycat filers, and laid the groundwork for a years-long commercial exploitation programme covering software, downloadable digital collateral, online services and audio-visual content. The intent-to-use basis aligns with the game's then-2025 (now 2026) release window, and the matching TTAB activity confirms that Take-Two will defend these marks vigorously through to registration and beyond. For researchers, the public USPTO record — accessible via TSDR, USPTO.report, Justia Trademarks and Trademarkia — provides an unusually detailed window onto how a major publisher operationalises trademark law at the precise moment of a blockbuster product reveal.
Bizapedia (2023) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark — Serial 98298534. Available at: https://www.bizapedia.com/trademarks/grand-theft-auto-vi-98298534.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Furm (2023) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. — Serial 98298472. Available at: https://furm.com/trademarks/grand-theft-auto-vi-98298472 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Justia Trademarks (2023a) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark Application of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. — Serial 98298430. Available at: https://trademarks.justia.com/982/98/grand-theft-auto-98298430.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Justia Trademarks (2023b) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark Application of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. — Serial 98298472. Available at: https://trademarks.justia.com/982/98/grand-theft-auto-98298472.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Trademark Elite (2023) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. — Serial 98298461. Available at: https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/98298461/GRAND-THEFT-AUTO-VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Trademarkia (2023) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI Trademark — Serial 98298534. Available at: https://www.trademarkia.com/grand-theft-auto-vi-98298534 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
USPTO.report (2023a) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI — Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Trademark, Serial 98298387. Available at: https://uspto.report/TM/98298387 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
USPTO.report (2023b) GRAND THEFT AUTO VI — Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Trademark, Serial 98298438. Available at: https://uspto.report/TM/98298438 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
USPTO TTABVUE (2026) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Inquiry System: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.. Available at: https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pnam=Take-Two%20Interactive%20Software%2C%20Inc. (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).