--- Brad Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Dan Carreker
> >
> > 1) a game mentions, inadvertantly, the XYZ. XYZ
> > Corp which makes a non-gaming product claims it
> > violates the copyright. They admit it falls under
> > fair usage, but claims the liscense forbids its
> use
> > and holds the publisher to a higher standard.
> They
> > want a really bad thing done to the publisher.
>
> Copyright is totally different than a Trademark.
Opps ment trademark here...maybe theres no such thing
as fair usage per se, but I do know that many
companies use each others name in legitimate means.
>
So who decides when a trademark
> was
> > violated?
>
> Ultimately the courts do,
So this would be unenforcable until the courts rule?
> The biggest violation of a Trademark (and the reason
> they were created) is
> so companies would be able to differentiate
> themselves from the knock-offs.
> That means you can't confuse consumers into thinking
> your product is an
> official 'Dungeons & Dragons' product. In certain
> circumstances a company
> can use a mark they don't own for advertising
> purposes, such as saying a
> product works as well or better than another
> product, or by saying a product
> 'replaces' another product (it's tricky but it can
> be done). Mostly this is
> an advertising & marketing issue, and that's how I
> think it should be
> treated in the OGL. It doesn't do anyone any good
> if we encourage a market
> of knock-offs.
Agree, no problem there, hence my original
question...is this to prevent knockoffs or
competition.
>
> Since the d20 mark is WotC property, it is perfectly
> reasonable for them to
> insist on 'no trademarks' in a d20 work. The
> trademarks most folks would
> like to use in conjunction with d20 would also be
> WotC trademarks, and this
> is clearly not in WotC's best interest.
Ummm, I thought this was a clause for OGL (am I
wrong?), the D20 doesn't bother me as much as it does
belong to WOTC and they can restrict it however they
want. The same thing in OGL worries me though as no
one has to use OGL and therefore would be in better
shape of avoiding the whole issue by using other means
of publishing---which hurts the very thing we're
trying to achieve.
Dan Carreker
=====
http://www2.50megs.com/danccomp/tsnoishome.htm
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