Hobbit is unique. Tolkien coined it, so he can trademark it.Roman said:I was under the impression that Hobbits and Orcs are both Tolkien's inventions. Yet, apparently WotC is unable to use Hobbits (at least by name), yet Orcs are used widely by both WotC and other RPGs. What gives?
Ranger REG said:Hobbit is unique. Tolkien coined it, so he can trademark it.
Orc has a "history" dating back to a Saxon poem in the Old English.
The name hobbit had previously appeared in an obscure "list of spirits" by Michael Denham, which includes several repetitions. There is no evidence to suggest Tolkien used this as a source — indeed he spent many years trying to find out whether he really did coin the word. Denham's "hobbit spirits" (which are never referenced anywhere except in the long list) have no obvious relation to Tolkien's Hobbits, other than the name: Tolkien's Hobbits are small humans, not spirits. Nonetheless, some few people have suggested that the reference in the Denham list should invalidate the trademark.
Well, the claims are a bit iffy.Roman said:Hmm, I certainly did not realize that the term hobbit was not coined by Tolkien.
Yeah, right. Why bother? The perfectly suitable word halfling is not trademarked and has a long and illustrious history of it's own in fantasy fiction now. There's little (if anything) to be gained by fighting to use the word hobbit intsead.Roman said:I think this makes the trademark more dubious and WotC and other companies could perhaps get away with using it. I guess they just don't want to push their luck on matters of this sort.
Roman said:Hmm, I certainly did not realize that the term hobbit was not coined by Tolkien. I think this makes the trademark more dubious and WotC and other companies could perhaps get away with using it.