Gygax Magazine to Cease Publication

ExTSR said:

Sure. First, it's not mine. Perhaps Jayson wanted to splash an olde name in his promo; Tim Kask has been active with the magazine, but he's moving on as well, so...

I'm contributing a town to an adventure James Carpio wrote a few years ago. Real good adventure with setting, and given the shiny new OGL for 5, it's time to act. I'm using the Hommlet 'model' to develop a convoluted Gygaxian web of clues and enticements in town leading to different adventure 'paths' (the current vernacular iirc).

So let's give credit where it's due, and anticipate more great stuff from Jayson and James and others at the New TSR.

Frank

* ps: Gail, don't bother to sue me for using the term "Gygaxian". I can prove in court that it's been in common usage, appearing in printed products for at least 25 years (prior use that you omitted from your claim in the filing).

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JohnRTroy said:

And I should point out that she never engaged in a lawsuit. These are the facts that occurred.

In 2012 Gygax Magazine was announced with a press release, and Gail immediately responded regarding the trademark with her own press release.

Curiously, for all the prep work done for the magazine, there was never a filing of "intent to use" with the USPTO. That's a huge red flag. Why didn't TSR register the trademark in advance? That's business rule #1. Even when the first issue was released they didn't register an "in use" trademark. That's really a poor business decision...unless there was more going on behind the scenes. If you read Jayson Elliot's interview in the examiner, it appears he was talking to Gail, stating the following:

"No. I talked to her before we did this. Gail Gygax has been very nice this whole time. She and I have been talking all through this process. I'm hoping she'll be involved in a material way, but whether she is or isn't, she has been really supportive. Gail wants what's best for Gary's legacy and for the gaming industry as a whole." This leads me to suspect there were some behind the scenes discussions, although considering what happened I'm not sure that quote is 100% accurate regarding Gail's feelings. Again, there's probably a lot more to the negotiations and disputes that the public was lead to believe.

Then Gail registered several trademarks related to Gygax in the fields Gary was famous for.

It was actually TSR that initiated legal action in the form of registering an Motion to Oppose Gail's attempts to trademark. (I believe they might have tried later to register before that but were rejected because Gail's application beat theirs) If you review the Trademark action board status, they filed first--and this is not a lawsuit at all, but more of an administrative legal action. It was scheduled for depositions and hearings, but this is not a trial or a lawsuit. While I'm sure there were legal fees on both sides, none of this would count as litigation, at least when it comes to trademark arbitration. Although to be really technical, if any legal action was initiated, it was on TSR's end.

According to TEAS, the parties negotiated for several months, then the decision was made to acknowledge Gail as the legal owner of Trademarks regarding the term "Gygax". For whatever reason, the Gygax Brothers decided to step down rather than accept the terms (which we don't have a record of).

While it's regrettable that there's a rift between family members, the simple fact is Gary chose to leave all his IP and inheritance to Gail and not to any of his Children (and the sons were not very involved directly in Gary's publishing works post TSR), and while I think we all wish they could get along, the simple fact is I think you have to respect Gail's rights when it comes to trademarking the "Gygax" surname when it comes to RPGs. If another party got those rights, it could make it harder for her to publish Gary's work. This doesn't limit the children from using their own names, as long as it's identified clearly "Luke/Ernie Gygax", same font size for both parts, indication as author, etc.

This ended as I expected it to. I think they should have used the term "Drake, Wyvern, Wyrm" for the mag and if they wanted to advertise the Gygax's, say "Luke and Ernie Gygax Present" or heck, trademark "Gygax Brothers" as a term.



Memorials take a long time...first of all most of the donations didn't arrive from WoTC until 2012-2013, and there's a lot of negotiations over location (Dorian Park seems to be on a wetlands and I see a lot of red tape involved. My Dad was on a committee to get a Vietnam Memorial built in the town and it took 6+ years to finish.

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