TSR TSR (2) Confirms TSR (3)'s Acquisition of Trademark (Updated!)

Jayson Elliot registered the TSR trademark back in 2011 and used it to launch Gygax Magazine along with Ernie and Luke Gygax. The two Gygax's left the company a few years later after Gary Gygax's (co-founder of TSR (1) back in the 1970s) widow, Gail Gygax, forced the closure of Gygax Magazine. Then, earlier this year, TSR (3) swooped in on the TSR trademark, after Jayson Elliot accidentally let it lapse, as TSR (2) confirms:

We have owned the TSR trademark since 2011. Last year, we missed a filing date, and another company registered it, though we are still using it in commerce. While we could win a lawsuit, we frankly don't have the money to litigate. So, we're licensing it back from them.

As a result, there are two companies now using the name TSR. You can tell when it's us because we're the only ones using the new logo.

They're opening a museum in Lake Geneva at the old TSR house, and we wish them success with it, it's important to celebrate the legacy that Gary Gygax created.

Ernie Gygax, formerly of TSR (1) under Gary Gygax, then working with Jayson Elliot as part of TSR (2), is one of the founders of of TSR (3), and confirmed in his (now infamous) interview --

The other TSR is a licensee because [Jayson Elliot] let it lapse. But he had absolutely ... love for the game and the products. There was no reason to say 'oh you've screwed up, oh it's all ours, ha ha ha ha!' Instead, Justin [LaNasa] came to him and said ... we love that you're doing Top Secret things, we have a much broader goal for the whole thing. But there's no reason for you to stop or even have any troubles. Justin said, I'll take care of the paperwork, you just give me $10 a year, and you put out all this love for old school gaming that you can. And we appreciate that you were there to try and pick up things, and you produced Gygax Magazine, for in its time that you're also working on a game that you love to play ... because Top Secret was Jayson's love, as a young man.

TSR (2), still run by Jayson Elliot, publishes Top Secret, and is not connected to TSR (3) other than now having to license it’s own name from them. TSR (3) has also registered the trademark to Star Frontiers, a game owned by and still currently sold by D&D-owner WotC.

In other news the GYGAX trademark appears to have lapsed.

UPDATE! TSR (2) has decided NOT to license its own name from TSR (3):

Update to our earlier tweet - we will NOT be licensing anything from the new company claiming rights to the TSR logos. We are not working with them in any fashion.

 

[MoonSong]

It's the grift that keeps on grifting.
View attachment 138970

Ooookkkk....

@Neonchameleon I changed my mind, G junior -or at least someone in 3SR- definitely is an unethical businessman actually committing sleazy practices .

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Way back near the start of this thread, some of us were speculating about whether Wizards would feel it was worth the publicity hit from trying to enforce the copyrights TSR(3) is infringing.

The idea that a corporation would hold off from protecting their interests because of a publicity hit feels like something that folks who don't work for major corporations would believe is of concern.

I've had to be the hatchet guy for a major company that was smacking down a beloved illegal usage of our work. We all knew that the response would be terrible, and it was, but no one said "gee, let's give them some legal standing because we're worried people will say bad stuff about us on the internet."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I actually don't think Wizards needs to do anything at all at this point. They don't seem to care about the TSR trademark beyond being able to keep old material in print with the existing logos on it. They also don't seem to care about the Top Secret trademark at all given that they haven't bothered to put the old material up at DriveThru the way they did with Star Frontiers.

Wizards can just sit back and wait for all of this to implode on itself, as it seems to be on its way to doing.

I suspect that Star Frontiers was in their very large "maybe, some day" pile and Top Secret was in their "no" pile. (Other than Tom Cruise's insistence on creating Mission Impossible movies until he finally dies doing his own stunt, it's not a genre that has a lot of life nowadays, compared to its heyday.)

In any case, no, they really can't sit back and wait for the situation to take care of itself. Inaction to defend their property (TSR logos are clearly theirs, as they were part of the assets they purchased back in the 1990s) is dangerous, legally.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As if any member of the D&D team who isn't off in a canoe on vacation isn't aware of this?

"I was on a really great canoeing trip. What the heck is everyone so wound up about?"

 

[Morrus]

Update!

 

[darjr]

 

[darjr]

Dragons foot thread has been closed.

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If he's bullying the Old TSR fanbase, who the heck does he think is left to buy whatever stuff they're still pretending they're going to sell?

 

[Parmandur]

I dunno. If it's just the TSR logo(s) and WotC isn't going to do anything with them they might not care enough to give the new company something sympathetic to latch onto. Unlike trademarks, IIRC copyrights don't need to be defended so there's no loss to waiting and giving the new company more rope as long as they themselves aren't planning to do anything with that copyrighted imagery. It comes down to PR tactics rather than legal ones - as bad as TSR looks now, Wizards could still make themselves look like the bad guy with the wrong response even if their response is perfectly legal and they know it.

I'm sure the Hasbto lawyers don't care about the optics at all, but in this case they would not even be bad.

 

[darjr]

Holy crap LeNasa is being banned from so many cons I can't keep up.