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Wizards of the Coast Requests Injunction Against NuTSR
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<blockquote data-quote="Abstruse" data-source="post: 8766234" data-attributes="member: 6669048"><p>The speculation for a while now has been that the entire thing is an attempt to extort a settlement out of Wizards of the Coast. In the text chain I saw, LaNasa said he expected to get $100 million, but in context I doubt it was completely serious. It had the tone of trying to hype themselves up more than an attempt to set accurate and realistic expectations. But considering it's LaNasa we're talking about, who knows?</p><p></p><p>But like I said, to have a legally enforceable trademark, you must use it commercially. That means for the case to work, they needed to sell something using the TSR and Star Frontiers trademarks. And it can't just be anything because trademarks are enforced narrowly (again, the goal is to prevent consumer confusion). McDonald's will often sue restaurants calling themselves "McDonald's" even if that's the owner's name, but they don't go after "McDonald's Plumbing" because they can't prove customer confusion - nobody's going to walk in angry that their Big Mac was actually a toilet fill valve.</p><p></p><p>Which means to claim the trademarks on Star Frontiers RPG and card game, he has to produce both an RPG and a card game and show intent to commercially release both. Now this is where my knowledge gets fuzzier, but I believe showing actual intent is enough - he wouldn't need to actually sell the item, just show that he was taking active steps to sell the item. Thus all the marketing posts and "Out of Stock" store pages and whatnot. It's the same thing as any other in-development product - companies can (and often do) trademark the names early in development to protect them before the product actually launches.</p><p></p><p>Again, this is pure speculation based on the evidence, but my guess: There was never an intent to release a product, just to look like they're releasing a product. When they didn't get an immediate offer to settle but started getting attention for being jackasses, they ramped it up to 11. "Better pay us off soon or everybody's going to associate TSR and Star Frontiers with racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia!" The playtest document likely came from one or more of three motivations: 1) An attempt to further the narrative they're actively working on a game, 2) An attempt to pander to the sort of toxic element that will throw money and anything that "pwns the libs", and/or 3) That's just the kind of thing they find funny.</p><p></p><p>And now they're kind of past the point of no return. Wizards of the Coast's legal firm is the sort of firm that makes international headlines for billion-dollar judgments and settlements. Of the five assigned lawyers, two of them are partners in the firm. One of those partners just entered the declaration of support that contained their playtest document. LaNasa set himself up to be made an example of, and that looks like exactly what they plan to do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Abstruse, post: 8766234, member: 6669048"] The speculation for a while now has been that the entire thing is an attempt to extort a settlement out of Wizards of the Coast. In the text chain I saw, LaNasa said he expected to get $100 million, but in context I doubt it was completely serious. It had the tone of trying to hype themselves up more than an attempt to set accurate and realistic expectations. But considering it's LaNasa we're talking about, who knows? But like I said, to have a legally enforceable trademark, you must use it commercially. That means for the case to work, they needed to sell something using the TSR and Star Frontiers trademarks. And it can't just be anything because trademarks are enforced narrowly (again, the goal is to prevent consumer confusion). McDonald's will often sue restaurants calling themselves "McDonald's" even if that's the owner's name, but they don't go after "McDonald's Plumbing" because they can't prove customer confusion - nobody's going to walk in angry that their Big Mac was actually a toilet fill valve. Which means to claim the trademarks on Star Frontiers RPG and card game, he has to produce both an RPG and a card game and show intent to commercially release both. Now this is where my knowledge gets fuzzier, but I believe showing actual intent is enough - he wouldn't need to actually sell the item, just show that he was taking active steps to sell the item. Thus all the marketing posts and "Out of Stock" store pages and whatnot. It's the same thing as any other in-development product - companies can (and often do) trademark the names early in development to protect them before the product actually launches. Again, this is pure speculation based on the evidence, but my guess: There was never an intent to release a product, just to look like they're releasing a product. When they didn't get an immediate offer to settle but started getting attention for being jackasses, they ramped it up to 11. "Better pay us off soon or everybody's going to associate TSR and Star Frontiers with racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia!" The playtest document likely came from one or more of three motivations: 1) An attempt to further the narrative they're actively working on a game, 2) An attempt to pander to the sort of toxic element that will throw money and anything that "pwns the libs", and/or 3) That's just the kind of thing they find funny. And now they're kind of past the point of no return. Wizards of the Coast's legal firm is the sort of firm that makes international headlines for billion-dollar judgments and settlements. Of the five assigned lawyers, two of them are partners in the firm. One of those partners just entered the declaration of support that contained their playtest document. LaNasa set himself up to be made an example of, and that looks like exactly what they plan to do. [/QUOTE]
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