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Lovecraft in Public Domain?
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<blockquote data-quote="teitan" data-source="post: 4470266" data-attributes="member: 3457"><p>Demonstrably not true. Take Kleenex as an example. Kleenex was the name of the company that produced the most popular tissue paper. It became a generic term and whe the Kleenex corporation challenged a company for referring to their tissues as Kleenexes they lost their trademark as it had transitioned into general usage.</p><p></p><p>Also, the example of Captain Marvel/Shazam. Originally Fawcett Publications owned the trademark to the name Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel etc. Fawcett never went out of business (they still exist) but they ceased publishing comics after legal pressures from DC Comics/National Periodical Publications in the early 1950s. The trademarks lapsed and were picked up by Marvel Comics in the mid sixties for their Captain Mar-vell/Marvel character. Marvel has continuously published some form of a Captain Marvel book in order to retain the trademark and DC, who bought the original characters from Fawcett, has to call their book Shazam.</p><p></p><p>Another example is the British Hero Marvelman/Miracleman. Marvel was able to force Alan Moore and Dez Skinn to change the name of the character in America because of trademark expiration issues. Marvel now owns the Marvelman trademark for a very minor character. Occasionally you will see an obscure character advertised prominently on a cover and this is the maintain the trademark.</p><p></p><p>Basically if Chaosium allows the term "Call of Cthulhu" to become a general usage term, then they CAN lose the trademark.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="teitan, post: 4470266, member: 3457"] Demonstrably not true. Take Kleenex as an example. Kleenex was the name of the company that produced the most popular tissue paper. It became a generic term and whe the Kleenex corporation challenged a company for referring to their tissues as Kleenexes they lost their trademark as it had transitioned into general usage. Also, the example of Captain Marvel/Shazam. Originally Fawcett Publications owned the trademark to the name Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel etc. Fawcett never went out of business (they still exist) but they ceased publishing comics after legal pressures from DC Comics/National Periodical Publications in the early 1950s. The trademarks lapsed and were picked up by Marvel Comics in the mid sixties for their Captain Mar-vell/Marvel character. Marvel has continuously published some form of a Captain Marvel book in order to retain the trademark and DC, who bought the original characters from Fawcett, has to call their book Shazam. Another example is the British Hero Marvelman/Miracleman. Marvel was able to force Alan Moore and Dez Skinn to change the name of the character in America because of trademark expiration issues. Marvel now owns the Marvelman trademark for a very minor character. Occasionally you will see an obscure character advertised prominently on a cover and this is the maintain the trademark. Basically if Chaosium allows the term "Call of Cthulhu" to become a general usage term, then they CAN lose the trademark. [/QUOTE]
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