Take-Two Interactive filed 16 US trademark applications on 28 October for Vice City, the city at the centre of Grand Theft Auto 6, and for related names. The game comes out on 19 November. The applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office cover everything from game software to lighters, and we found no earlier report of them.
Ten are for “Vice City” on its own, without the Grand Theft Auto name. Four are for “Vice City Leonida”, which pairs the city with Leonida, the fictional state GTA 6 is set in. The other two cover the Grand Theft Auto name and the Rockstar Games logo. Andrea L. Calvaruso of Kelley Drye & Warren, who handles Take-Two’s trademark filings, filed all 16, and each is waiting to be assigned to an examiner. The filings arrive three weeks before Take-Two’s most anticipated release in years, and they would protect the city’s name on its own, apart from the Grand Theft Auto brand.
The Vice City application for game software claims first use on 29 October 2002, the day Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out in North America. A matching filing for online games and other entertainment services claims the same date. Both are use-based, so Take-Two is asking for registration on the grounds that it has used the name for 24 years.
The other Vice City applications fall in the classes for jewellery, printed matter, bags, housewares, clothing, toys and lighters. The trademark system sorts goods into numbered classes, and a mark only protects the classes it is registered in. Filing across this many is how a company makes sure a name is covered wherever it plans to sell it.
The 8 October date
Several of the use-based filings give a much more recent first-use date. The Vice City clothing application, for shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and caps, lists 8 October 2026. So do the Vice City lighter filing, the Grand Theft Auto bags filing and the Rockstar Games filing for printed materials. That was the day Rockstar opened its GTA 6 collection on the Rockstar Store, with T-shirts, caps, canvas bags, a Vice City Zippo lighter and sticker sets.
TalkEsport has the full price list. Take-Two started selling the products first and filed for the trademarks three weeks later, citing the store launch as its first use. Take-Two filed the four Vice City Leonida applications on an intent-to-use basis, which means it hasn’t sold anything under that name yet. They cover sunglasses, bags, printed guides, and the class for jewellery and watches. The printed-guides filing lists “manuals, pamphlets, booklets, books, magazines, posters, stickers, and guides” about game strategy, wording broad enough to cover an official strategy guide.
The list lines up closely with a product Rockstar has already announced. On 24 September it revealed The Goodtime State: Vice City Collection, an 11-item box priced at $399.99, or £349.99, that doesn’t include the game, VGC reported. It contains Oakley Frogskins sunglasses, a Leonida Keys crossbody bag, a New Era cap with “Vice City Leonida” embellishments, an enamel pin set, a sticker pack and a poster with a map of Leonida. Sunglasses, bags, stickers and posters are among the goods the Vice City Leonida filings cover, so the box looks like the first product to carry the full Vice City Leonida name.
A shorter form of the name is already on sale. Miami coffee company Vice City Bean is selling a $23 Leonida blend, made in a collaboration with Rockstar Games, KeenGamer reported this week.
What happens next at the USPTO
The filings won’t be decided quickly. The USPTO said in May that the average wait for an examiner’s first decision had fallen to 4.45 months in the first half of its 2026 financial year, and the full process took about 10 months. Applications filed this week are unlikely to be examined before March.
Intent-to-use filings take longer still. Once the USPTO approves one, the owner has to show real use, through a statement of use filed within six months, and can extend that deadline up to a total of 36 months. If the Vice City Leonida box ships as planned, Take-Two will have its proof soon after launch.
Take-Two isn’t the only company that has wanted Vice City. In August WWE filed its own application for “Vice City” for wrestling entertainment, Kotaku reported. USPTO records show that application was abandoned on 21 September. Take-Two’s new filings for entertainment services and merchandise make it harder for anyone else to try.
Take-Two has also gone after a much smaller business. In February it filed an opposition at the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board against Vice City Subs, a sandwich shop name that DT Global Investment Holdings of Doral, Florida, had applied to register. The filing revealed that GTA: Vice City Stories has sold more than 7 million copies, TheGamer reported.
GTA 6 launches on 19 November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Pre-orders opened on 25 June at $79.99 for the standard edition and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition, with a “Vintage Vice City Pack” for anyone who buys before 20 November, Rockstar announced. The boxed version contains a download code and goes on sale on 12 November so players can pre-load. In August, Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick called the level of pre-orders “unprecedented and astonishing”, Variety reported. Rockstar released the launch trailer on 15 October.
Our GTA 6 release date guide has the details. Take-Two reports its next quarterly results on 9 November, ten days before launch.
