Tact-Tiles Mk II set

[Ashrem Bayle]

WARNING!!

Great Victory Widgets IS NOT legally allowed to use the brand name "Tact-Tiles". Tact-Tiles were sold by BC-Products to Imagineering, Inc. earlier this year, and we (Imagineering, Inc.) HAVE NOT given GVW permission to produce gaming tiles under this brand name.

GVW seems to think that because they are not in the US, they can just use our product name however they want. We've threatened them with legal action once already, and they backed off. But it seems additional action may be in order.

Honestly, I have no idea what kind of product they produce. They may be the best gaming tiles on the market. But they are NOT "Tact-Tiles" and they have no legal right to use that name.

So buyer beware. They have proven time and time again that they are an unethical, and blatantly dishonest company.

My thanks to Jaws for bringing this to our attention.

Mike McConnell
Imagineering, Inc.

 

[Thanlis]

No offense meant, Ashrem, but do you own the Tact-Tiles trademark? A search on "Tact-Tiles" in the USPTO database only brings up a trademark application dated April 7, 2009, by a Christopher Beukeveld from Canada. Walking through the documentation attached, this is clearly Great Victory Widgets, since there's a picture of their product in one of the responses.

The most recent action was on 8/11/09; the Trademark Examining Attorney seems to be saying that it's all clear except for one technical question (does the applied-for mark have acquired distinctiveness). But the answer to that question won't affect the final decision.

If you don't own the trademark, you can't protect the brand name. I am no fan of Christopher or Great Victory Widgets, because they're spammers and so forth, but based on the evidence I've found you don't have much of a leg to stand on. The archives of bc-products.net show that they were claiming trademarks, so they ought to be able to provide evidence of current trademarks to you if they really had them.

 

[Dausuul]

I might shell out $120, but for that kind of money I'd want to be damn sure I was getting good value. I'd need to know they were durable enough to hold up for years, that they would erase cleanly, et cetera.

The fact that the website has a typo in the name of the company (!), no one seems to know about them even though they've been around for months, and there are questions about the validity of their trademark (no legitimate company should feel the need to put a "trademark disclaimer" on their site), makes me think they're just trying to make a quick buck off the popularity of the original. Which means their product probably sucks. Maybe it doesn't, but at that price I'm not going to tolerate any uncertainty; you want $120 from me for a set of map tiles, you better have a spotless reputation and these guys aren't even close.

Check out the following threads from a few months ago (one of them right here on ENWorld):

dwarvenforge.com / Dwarven Forge floor add-ons?
http://www.enworld.org/forum/publishers-press-releases/253645-tact-tiles-back.html

As things stand, I would not touch these with a standard-issue ten-foot pole. It's conceivable I could change my mind if I see people I trust post good things about them... but after that old ENWorld thread (evidently started by a sock puppet), I'm not about to trust random schmoes saying "This product is teh best 3V4R!1!"

I'm not a hundred percent convinced they even have a product to sell.

 

[jdrakeh]

The archives of bc-products.net show that they were claiming trademarks, so they ought to be able to provide evidence of current trademarks to you if they really had them.

The TESS database shows that the trademark was registered three days after the last posting here by Great Victory Widgets. And, yes, you're right — according to the US Patent and Trademark office database, Christopher Beukeveld is the sole registrant of Tact-Tiles trademark. There's a lesson in that somewhere, I think.

 

[Truename]

By the way, there's another Tact-Tile-like product out there being produced for a fairly reasonable price -- Longtooth Studio's Battleboards. I haven't tried it yet but it's gotten decent reviews. I seem to recall that Longtooth bought the Tact-Tile designs (or something) but not the name.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just surprised they hadn't come up in this discussion yet, particularly given the prices being thrown around.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

No offense meant, Ashrem, but do you own the Tact-Tiles trademark? A search on "Tact-Tiles" in the USPTO database only brings up a trademark application dated April 7, 2009, by a Christopher Beukeveld from Canada. Walking through the documentation attached, this is clearly Great Victory Widgets, since there's a picture of their product in one of the responses.

The most recent action was on 8/11/09; the Trademark Examining Attorney seems to be saying that it's all clear except for one technical question (does the applied-for mark have acquired distinctiveness). But the answer to that question won't affect the final decision.

If you don't own the trademark, you can't protect the brand name. I am no fan of Christopher or Great Victory Widgets, because they're spammers and so forth, but based on the evidence I've found you don't have much of a leg to stand on. The archives of bc-products.net show that they were claiming trademarks, so they ought to be able to provide evidence of current trademarks to you if they really had them.

Thanks. I'll look into this. We've got documents from our lawyer that say otherwise, but it wouldn't be the first time this kind of issue has popped up.

But then, as I understand it, the first time you sell an item in the US, you automatically have the trademark. BC-Products did so, then passed ownership to us.

Mike

 

[Thanee]

1. Pricing at the secondary market price is not unheard of, GamesWorkshop did that for the new Spacehulk game.

I don't know. I found the Space Hulk game pretty fairly priced, considering the high production quality of the content. You do get quite some stuff in that box. The miniatures alone are worth the box price.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Jaws]

Thanks. I'll look into this. We've got documents from our lawyer that say otherwise, but it wouldn't be the first time this kind of issue has popped up.

But then, as I understand it, the first time you sell an item in the US, you automatically have the trademark. BC-Products did so, then passed ownership to us.

Mike

Can we expect Tact-Tiles from your company Mike any time soon? By the end of the year?


j.

 

[Perram]

What about these that are being advertised on ENWorld? Now I'm really confused.

LTIndex

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Can we expect Tact-Tiles from your company Mike any time soon? By the end of the year?


j.

I would very much love to say yes, but I don't want to give folks false hope.

A few months back I got together with the guys at BC Products, and we essentially combined into Imagineering Inc. Our goal was to revive Tact-Tiles, using the same molds and fabrication processes that were originally used to bring back the same high quality product.

But... sadly, it seems Tact-Tiles are cursed. Every employee of the company has fallen on one misfortune or another, and our efforts continue to get derailed.

For my part, we are about to have our first child. And while I certainly wouldn't classify that as a misfortune, it certainly takes its toll.

So, long story short, we are trying to get Tact-Tiles back on the market, we've just had a lot of issues to deal with.

That said, we are going to keep trying when we can find the time, energy, and capital.