Just restating the obvious, but what I see is this: WotC knows it can make better movies than the wretched execrable stuff that Sweetpea has done. Unfortunately, the film rights to the name of "Dungeons & Dragons" were signed away by WotC's predecessor, TSR, in a most poorly conceived contract. TSR was never run by the worlds brightest business people (that certainly includes Gygax himself). Definitely they were NOT smart enough to realize that when they started dealing with "Hollywood" that they were swimming with sharks and they were out of their depth. Their legal counsel was clearly inadequate and should have drafted a FAR more limited agreement with Sweetpea. WotC are now trying to wrest control of the NAME of their IP back from Sweetpea, who not surprisingly don't want to give up something so POTENTIALLY valuable, even if they themselves are notably talentless and lack the wherewithal to do anything with it but produce drek. To accomplish their task WotC are willing to put forth nearly any loophole or legalistic argument that will succeed. Once it's back under their control they can actually farm it out again to people with talent and money who can actually help them build it into a larger, singular, saleable and reliable brand. Their only comfort is that Sweetpea's efforts past the first film have been so poor they haven't even made it to theaters. Filmgoers tend not to notice straight-to-DVD stuff.
I would like to think that the courts will consider that the legal points they base their decision on will have ramifications far beyond this little squabble (and right now, given the value of "Dungeons & Dragons" as an ongoing movie franchise it certainly is pathetically little.) But, even though judges are supposed to be highly intelligent they make stupid decisions all the time because in the real world LAWFUL really can be stupid. They can base decisions not on what is sensible or equitable but on strict precedent and legalese, and damn the consequences. It will be interesting to watch this play out.
