We asked trademark lawyer Jesse Saivar to explain what this might mean, and he broke down the process for us.
Based solely on the history of this application, this indicates that at some point in 2012, Sony planned to create a game titled The Last Guardian,' said Saivar. They filed whats called an intent-to-use application which means they werent using that title yet, but planned to at some point in the future
Saivar explains that the USPTO reviewed the application and found everything was in order. The next step for the agency was to order a Notice of Allowance to Sony. This is a three-year registration period that is broken up into six-month chunks. Every half year, Sony has to check in with the USPTO with a Statement of Use. This is when Sony can either show how it is using the trademark or it can ask for an extension.
Sony filed three such extensions to keep the application alive, said Saivar. However, they had another Jan. 15, 2015 deadline to file an extension and they did nothing. This indicates that, unless they blew the deadline unwittingly, they have no further intention of using that title.
Interestingly, Kiphanie Radford, the member of Sony Computer Entertainment Americas legal team that was in charge of filing the trademark information for The Last Guardian is no longer with the company, according to her LinkedIn profile. Radford joined the legal firm Cobalt earlier this year.
Saivar goes on to note that this USPTO abandonment isnt final. Sony has two months to tell the USPTO that it missed the deadline and ask for another extension the company will have to pay an additional fee for not filing within the appropriate amount of time.