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Wizards of the Coast Requests Injunction Against NuTSR
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<blockquote data-quote="see" data-source="post: 8766286" data-attributes="member: 10531"><p>Mmm, <em>that's</em> debatable. WotC/Hasbro stopped selling its older books in PDF in early April 2009, and didn't resume until December 2012. That meets the statutory standard of three years' non-use in commerce for a presumption of abandonment. Combined with previously letting the registrations lapse, there's a pretty good argument for abandonment.</p><p></p><p>However, the resumption of PDF sales starts a <em>new</em> claim to all the marks as used then, which is why this filing specifically mentions the OneBookShelf sales starting in December 2012, predating any use by NuTSR.</p><p></p><p>If you dig into the nitty-gritty of abandonment and new use, there's really only one of the old trademarks that WotC/Hasbro might not have exclusive rights to anymore, which is the "TSR" word mark itself. In addition to letting the registration lapse and the period of non-use, WotC/Hasbro never challenged TSR2's registration or use of the mark. At the same time, TSR2 never challenged WotC/Hasbro's use on PDF sales, and eventually let their own registration lapse. And the two never seemed to have negotiated any sharing arrangement. There is accordingly a case to be made that the "TSR" word mark (but not any of the specific TSR logos) is no longer a valid trademark.</p><p></p><p>And at least as far as I've seen in these filings (maybe I've missed some), WotC/Hasbro actually hasn't claimed the "TSR" word mark against NuTSR use. WotC/Hasbro's lawyers have, as best I can see, been pretty meticulous about only claiming exclusive rights to marks for WotC/Hasbro where those are solidly grounded in actual use since the resumption of PDF sales. On the "TSR" word mark, the WotC/Hasbro lawyers simply pointed out that NuTSR doesn't have the grounds to claim exclusive rights to the mark.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="see, post: 8766286, member: 10531"] Mmm, [I]that's[/I] debatable. WotC/Hasbro stopped selling its older books in PDF in early April 2009, and didn't resume until December 2012. That meets the statutory standard of three years' non-use in commerce for a presumption of abandonment. Combined with previously letting the registrations lapse, there's a pretty good argument for abandonment. However, the resumption of PDF sales starts a [I]new[/I] claim to all the marks as used then, which is why this filing specifically mentions the OneBookShelf sales starting in December 2012, predating any use by NuTSR. If you dig into the nitty-gritty of abandonment and new use, there's really only one of the old trademarks that WotC/Hasbro might not have exclusive rights to anymore, which is the "TSR" word mark itself. In addition to letting the registration lapse and the period of non-use, WotC/Hasbro never challenged TSR2's registration or use of the mark. At the same time, TSR2 never challenged WotC/Hasbro's use on PDF sales, and eventually let their own registration lapse. And the two never seemed to have negotiated any sharing arrangement. There is accordingly a case to be made that the "TSR" word mark (but not any of the specific TSR logos) is no longer a valid trademark. And at least as far as I've seen in these filings (maybe I've missed some), WotC/Hasbro actually hasn't claimed the "TSR" word mark against NuTSR use. WotC/Hasbro's lawyers have, as best I can see, been pretty meticulous about only claiming exclusive rights to marks for WotC/Hasbro where those are solidly grounded in actual use since the resumption of PDF sales. On the "TSR" word mark, the WotC/Hasbro lawyers simply pointed out that NuTSR doesn't have the grounds to claim exclusive rights to the mark. [/QUOTE]
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