Kal,
As I understand it from reading the law you can't use trademarked items
without permission from the trademark holder now. This is by Trademark law.
What this will do is two-fold
1) It will strengthen the D20 system because that will be the defining
symbol.
2) It will require you to ask your fellow D20 system members before you say
your game is "compatable with" game X.
It means that before you can say your "Snakemen and Mongoosemen Supplement"
is compatable with my "Swamp Critters Game" you need to ask my permission to
say it. This gives me the ability to say but they're not ootsey cutesy swamp
critters so I won't let you, instead of my lawyer saying "Remove those
statements from your finished product".
There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who would like nothing more
than to make a fast buck off _somebody else's_ product name. And if the
product doesn't fit the designer's idea of how it should be then they should
be allowed to say no.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Kal Lin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
I have no interest or money to start registering trademarks
so I can give myself permission to use them. I thought one
motivation of the OGL was to REDUCE the number of reasons
a small independent would need a lawyer for to participate
in open gaming. Adding another clause which would require a
lawyer to help me navigate is certainly a negative.
--Kal
application/ms-tnef
