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."

 

[Kovar Valechnik]

So why are contractual obligations being trampled over? Just this week I read about Alan Dean Foster appealing to Disney to pay the meagre royalties from the books he wrote for both 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm stables (#DisneyMustPay Alan Dean Foster - SFWA).

Also, concerning Disney, the live action remakes were based mainly on the artistic creativity from the original creators of the animated classics. No royalties were paid to them either! Clearly, big companies think it's OK to disregard their promises or duties.

So the battle against the megacorporations has started! I hope that common sense and decency prevails, otherwise, the worlds of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun (no, not the elf/orc bit) may be materialising before our eyes...

 

[MarkB]

Interesting that you would make that assumption. There was a Korean poster earlier who confirmed TRPG was a crappy producer that delivers shoddy work. You don’t think WoC have a right to be protective of their IP?

Sure, and that protection could take the form of ending the contract formally, with whatever penalty that incurs, and entering into a contract with a new provider - or doing the work in-house.

Or it could take the form of WotC initiating legal action against Gale Force 9 for failing to meet the quality standards agreed in their contract, seeking to require them to either improve their standards or end the contract voluntarily.

It doesn't need to take the form of WotC using a technicality to keep a partner on the hook while preventing them from releasing new products.

 

[Zardnaar]

So why are contractual obligations being trampled over? Just this week I read about Alan Dean Foster appealing to Disney to pay the meagre royalties from the books he wrote for both 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm stables (#DisneyMustPay Alan Dean Foster - SFWA).

Also, concerning Disney, the live action remakes were based mainly on the artistic creativity from the original creators of the animated classics. No royalties were paid to them either! Clearly, big companies think it's OK to disregard their promises or duties.

So the battle against the megacorporations has started! I hope that common sense and decency prevails, otherwise, the worlds of Cyberpunk and Shadowrun (no, not the elf/orc bit) may be materialising before our eyes...

Disney is having some big financial problems.

They were heavily in debt before Covid, parks are closed and movies can't really make money atm.

 

[Kovar Valechnik]

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.

Sorry Ace, I jumped the gun before reading your post and posted something similar (albeit less informative and more speculative in a jokey way). Good points!

 

[MGibster]

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?

From an outsider's perspective, it appears to be an attempt by WotC to effectively cancel a contract without actually jumping through the hoops or incurring costs associated with formally ending the relationship. We're not talking about WotC preventing some random third party from producing D&D products, they entered in an agreement with GF9 who has since made business decisions based on the belief that WotC would make a good faith effort to uphold their end of the contract. FLat out refusing to approve anything doesn't seem like a good faith effort on the part of WotC.

Generally speaking, I like to keep an open mind because it's not like any of us has access to all the facts. But this is the second lawsuit predicated on the claim that WotC is simply refusing to approve of anything.

 

[Ace]

Sorry Ace, I jumped the gun before reading your post and posted something similar (albeit less informative and more speculative in a jokey way). Good points!

No worries. We all do the same thing. I do appreciate the apology though. Folks like you help make this forum a nice place which isn't easy to find these days.

 

[Kovar Valechnik]

Disney is having some big financial problems.

They were heavily in debt before Covid, parks are closed and movies can't really make money atm.

Agreed on that point. However, Disney were trampling Alan Dean Foster from the LucasFilm acquisition...they were doing well back then.

 

[Zardnaar]

Agreed on that point. However, Disney were trampling Alan Dean Foster from the LucasFilm acquisition...they were doing well back then.

Ah. Disney's a fairly crappy corporation as well. Hasbro looks good by comparison.

 

[MGibster]

Sorry Ace, I jumped the gun before reading your post and posted something similar (albeit less informative and more speculative in a jokey way). Good points!

No worries. We all do the same thing. I do appreciate the apology though. Folks like you help make this forum a nice place which isn't easy to find these days.

Morrus, is this really the kind of environment you want for EN World? An environment rife with mutual respect and consideration for other people? In light of all that's happening in 2020, I personally find such displays of basic human decency to be confusing and upsetting. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop! I'm on to you Kovar and Ace. Whatever you're planning I'm on to you!

 

[Nylanfs]

Well

Morrus, is this really the kind of environment you want for EN World? An environment rife with mutual respect and consideration for other people? In light of all that's happening in 2020, I personally find such displays of basic human decency to be confusing and upsetting. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop! I'm on to you Kovar and Ace. Whatever you're planning I'm on to you!

Well, we can't see the name calling and hair pulling going on in the private messages back and forth.