----- Original Message -----
From: "Lizard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Open_Gaming] Use of Trademarks - PLEASE READ!
> BTW, it seems to me that a statement such as "This product uses the D20
> tm system, the same one used in the Dungeons&Dragons tm game!" ought to
> be legal. IIRC, trademark law explicitly allows the use of competing
> trademarks in comparisons, such as "Our burger is 50% bigger than the
> Big Mac tm!" Can a local lawyer correct me on this?
Not a lawyer.
However, a couple of points:
1) WotC is the owner of both the D&D trademark and the D20 trademark. WotC
is giving you permission to use the latter, but you can only do so if you
follow their rules about it.
2) The D20 Trademark License says you *can* use the D&D trademark -- in a
very specific way. Specifically, you can place this statement in the
publication: "Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons(R) Player's
Handbook, Third Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast(R). Dungeons &
Dragons(R) and Wizards of the Coast(R) are Registered Trademarks of Wizards
of the Coast, and are used with Permission."
3) What it specifically says you *can't* do is use the D&D trademark on
advertisements for your product or in any other way separate from the
publication.
What's not clear to me is this: if your publication is electronic and you're
selling it over the Internet, at what point is your web site an
advertisement, and at what point should you be permitted to reveal the
d20/D&D link? I would think you'd want to do it just before the person
bought the electronic file somehow. But it appears to me that this isn't
possible; instead, you could include it in the electronic file, but by the
time the customer has it it's kind of too late in a sense.
In a bookstore, you have the leisure of reading the material ahead of time
and possibly seeing that D&D trademark statement. Perhaps online, you'd
want to offer a "free preview" of the product, and have that free preview
also contain the D&D trademark statement. Again, not sure if this is
considered "advertising" or if it's just creating a publication and giving
it away for free.
Eric Noah
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