If you want a blast from the past, Sony Interactive Entertainment is providing at least with some hope, as they recently applied for the trademark of the name "Syphon Filter" in the European Union.

The trademark application, filed on November 8th, is an obvious hint to the successful franchise developed by Eidetic (now named SIE Bend Studio, and currently working on Days Gone) and debuted on the original PlayStation a whopping eighteen years ago, in 1999.

The third-person shooter series continued through five games until Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow for PS2 and PSP. After its release in 2007, it pretty much slipped into obscurity.

Before Sony Bend finally revealed Days Gone, many wondered if they weren't working on bringing the Syphon Filter series back, even if there were intermittent signals that this was not the case.

Of course, the significance of this trademark remains unknown. Sony could be planning some sort of revival of the franchise, or maybe a simple re-release. It could even just be a defensive move with no real significance besides the fact that the house of PlayStation wants to retain control of the name for the time being.

As usual, all we can do is take a "wait and see" stance. If anything is actually happening, we'll probably hear from official channels sooner or later.