Bandai Namco has filed a new US trademark for the name "Sparking! Zero".

A Japanese lawyer representing Bandai Namco filed the trademark application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office on 26th September.

Whilst it may not sound like much, this is pretty much the only Dragon Ball Z-flavoured news we've had since the new Budokai Tenkaichi instalment – which is called Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! series in Japan – was announced back in March.

As mused by Gematsu, the new filing may have given us an early peek at the name of the upcoming Budokai Tenkaichi title, and may hint that there are more Sparking! games on the way. Or it just suggests that the Japanese edition will continue with its Sparking! name – right now, it's pretty hard to say.

Whatever it is, it's at least confirmation that development is progressing, and perhaps we'll get an update soon.

The new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi game will be the fourth Western title in the fighting game series based on the popular anime, following Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 released in 2007 for the PS2 and Wii, a whole 16 years ago.

A new teaser trailer for the game was released, with footage from previous games leading up to the reveal.