Rebranding to Travellin Cats in Japan

[p]TLDR: Cats Hidden in Japan is now called Travellin Cats in Japan, due to trademark complications.[/p][p][/p][p]Hi everyone, [/p][p][/p][p]This is not a post I thought I'd ever have to make, but let me start from the beginning. [/p][p][/p][p]In September of 2025, Nukearts registered the trademark "Hidden Cats" in the USA, with a claimed first-use date of 2022. These past few days, they filed a trademark infringement complaint with Valve, listing many games that include the words "Hidden" and "Cats" in their titles, including all of my games. [/p][p][/p][p]Valve gave me until 2nd March 2026 to change the titles of all my games; otherwise they would be removed from the store. I was also informed that the new titles may not contain both HIDDEN and CATS.  I may use HIDDEN in my new title, or CATS, which means this affects every Steam release since 2022 and going forward.[/p][p][/p][p]I do not understand how this trademark was approved, given that hidden cat games are an established genre on Steam, with titles like 100 Hidden Cats releasing well before Nukearts' first game.[/p][p][/p][p]Fighting this trademark would be very costly and time-consuming. Since my games are my main source of income, this was not an option. [/p][p][/p][p]These past few months, I had already been considering rebranding due to oversaturation in the hidden cat games market, but being forced to do so under harsh time pressure simply sucks. [/p][p][/p][p]A lot of other devs will be affected by this trademark as well. Some will probably have their games removed because they didn't see Valve's email in time. Since I am the biggest developer affected by this, I wanted to speak out about it. The most important thing for you:[/p][p][/p][h3]🚨The game rebrands to Travellin Cats in Japan🚨[/h3][p][/p][h3]Please help me spread the word so that everyone hears about the name change![/h3][p][/p][p]Everything else stays the same! [/p][p][/p][p]Peace & Love[/p][p]Patrick[/p][p][/p][p]P. S. I made a silly little app during the winter break and it's coming out this Friday! Please check it out :)[/p][p]
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