WotC Gale Force 9 Sues WotC [Updated]

In the second lawsuit against WotC in recent weeks (Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman sued the company for breach of contract and other things about a month ago), Gale Force 9 is suing the company for breach of contract and implied duty of good faith.

Gale Force 9 produces miniatures, cards, DM screens, and other D&D accessories. They’re asking for damages of nearly a million dollars, as well as an injunction to prevent WotC from terminating the licensing contract.

From the suit, it looks like WotC wanted to end a licensing agreement a year early. When GF9 didn't agree to that, WotC indicated that they would refuse to approve any new licensed products from GF9. It looks like the same sort of approach they took with Weis and Hickman, which also resulted in a lawsuit. The dispute appears to relate to some product translations in non-US markets. More information as I hear it!

UPDATE. GF9's CEO, Jean-Paul Brisigotti, spoke to ICv2 and said: "After twelve years of working with Wizards, we find ourselves in a difficult place having to utilize the legal system to try and resolve an issue we have spent the last six months trying to amicably handle between us without any success. We still hope this can be settled between us but the timeline for a legal resolution has meant we have been forced to go down this path at this time."

 

[TheSword]

Is this a case if not paying bills though? Or rather just preventing use of the D&D IP by third parties by withholding approvals?

Im a big fan of the GF9 sets. I have all the demon lords, the underdark sets and a lot of the dragons minis. I always thought there work was exemplary.

However this looks like sub contractors - (translators) have not been producing exemplary work and it’s caused embarrassment to WOC. Now the relationship has soured.

To be fair GF9 seem to be using their own set of clauses to justify why one of their subcontractors was allowed to produce shoddy work. Have you ever used a printers and a glaring spelling mistake was in the finished product and they say, well tough we sent you the proof. Yes they are correct legally, but it doesn’t stop it being frustrating and results in bad feeling. Particularly when the printers put the thing together in the first place.

There is big money from the D&D brand and other companies are set to make a lot of money too. I’m not surprised third parties in one form or another are relying on legal action to try and protect that. The end result will probably be that approval clauses end up with more meat on their bones to account for these eventualities. However I’m not sure that when relationships break down like this it’s particularly healthy for them to be forced to continue. Better to settle out of court and start fresh.

 

[Olrox17]

Ok, apparently someone at WotC's legal office is a big fan of this "I'll just avoid approving anything you send in without even reading it haha" scummy tactic. We'll see how well it goes in courts for them, but regardless, they have my disapproval. Very uncool of them, shame.

 

[Ibrandul]

Maybe Dragonlance was broken due to authors inability to resolve "sensible reader" standards, period.

The phrase you’re looking for is “sensitivity reader.” The phrase you used is definitely not the correct phrase.

 

[Eltab]

Let both Courts know the other lawsuit exists, and ask the person(s) at WotC who is supposed to sign off on approvals "What DO you find to be acceptable product?"

My suspicion is that a "Mr. No" is sitting at that desk; nothing is good enough and some excuse / reason can be created for each given item.

 

[Minigiant]

With all due respect, in looking at their last quarterly earnings report, this breach does not appear to be motivated by corporate earnings or health.

Indeed. It feels more that people in contracts with WOTC aren;t happy with their slow churn of products. It seems WOTC wants to do a lot more in house with its "small" team.

Like I said in other discussions, for years 5e was a shell and WOTC seemed happy to let other companies do a lot of the stuff outside of the core books. Now that 5e is a success and no longer shiny new, the game is at the point where the outside stuff is the new phase of the game. Seems like WOTC wants to control and do that.

 

[embee]

Do you need a subscription to PACER to see the filing?

Yes. And PACER is 10 cents per page.

 

[Helldritch]

Well, these two lawsuits look pretty similar to me. If this is becoming a pattern, I will be very sad that WotC is becoming such a toxic company with its parteners.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Are they repeating the 4e fiasco that killed all non-english version for several years? I hope not.

Back during 4e days they suddenly demanded much higher license fees than the smaller non-english markets could reasonably generate. The German publisher just laughed and threw the license at their feet. They then went around among all other eligible German publishing companies (not many, small country) and everyone also laughed at WotCs demands. At the end of the day a decade long history of german D&D translations just stopped and would not be restarted for several years.

I know that since the (almost) start of 5e, the French translation has been a nightmare of licensing/canceling/re-licensing and so on. Add to the fact that the licensee (first Studio Agathe, now publishing their own SRD ''Donjon'', then Asmodee who was bought by Idunnowho, etc) charge a ridiculous amount for a single translated book (up to 100 CAD$), and I start to doubt that there is any real will from WotC to pierce the non-english-speaking market.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

The phrase you’re looking for is “sensitivity reader.” The phrase you used is definitely not the correct phrase.

I apologize for my bad english

 

[mykesfree]

This is a bit off topic though the author in question did have one of his works Humanx Commonwealth made into a GURPS books so its kind of germane.

A lot of companies that were fine a few months ago seemed to have developed not so good corporate policies. Disney for example thinks If you buy a publisher you no longer have to pay royalties on the works you acquire! SFWA link here And note this is not some new author but the well renowned Alan Dean Foster.

I'm guessing that some larger companies have lost a lot of revenue during this lockdown and aren't sure they'll ever get it back. I know that Disney actually lost money last quarter for the first time in decades .

Given these are all publicly traded companies and the demands of shareholders are going through the roof do to population aging and the economic crisis caused by COVID , straws are being grasped maybe a bit too hard.

What publisher did Disney Buy? Aren't they their own publisher and none of the books in question are published by Disney themselves.