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.

 

[Malmuria]

It's hard to tell, actually. It seems that a lot of the people responsible for contributing to the game were written out of the later narratives of how it emerged. Gygax's real skill, imo, was in taking credit for making the game and putting it into a form that he could copyright and sell. He even minimized Dave Arneson's role, and arguably it has been Arneson's ideas and playstyle that have had more staying power than Gygax's. Further, as soon as the game spread people started doing different things with it, and scenes particular to California and the UK emerged (I'm sure this is all well-known; just recounting the facts). It's basically yet another example of organic, creative cultures becoming subsumed by capitalism.

ps.

 

[Hussar]

D&D is a "Midwestern folk art"? WTF?

 

[pemerton]

ps.

I think this historical stuff has been discussed a lot. It seems that Arneson may have been more creative than Gygax, but Gygax was the one who was actually able to bring the game to market.

And from a wider perspective, isn't the whole raison d'etre of the US entertainment industry to commercialise folk art?

 

[darjr]

Are they saying the “umber hulk” was in folk usage before D&D printed it? They are going to have to prove it. The Umber Hulk came from that dime store pack of toys brought to TSR and named there.

 

[Black Dougal]

The irony and the tragedy of all of this is that the things Ernie is doing right now are the exact reasons that TSR and D&D don't belong to his family anymore.

I hadn't even thought about that when I was posting. Definitely some parallels and definitely loads of irony.

 

[Seramus]

Jupiter's Legacy, though not the best executed TV series, showed that a universal code is a delusion even when superpowers are used to promote it.

I thought it was the opposite? That the code was right all along, and when we don't follow it, we descend into horrible infighting?

 

[Malmuria]

Are they saying the “umber hulk” was in folk usage before D&D printed it? They are going to have to prove it. The Umber Hulk came from that dime store pack of toys brought to TSR and named there.

I think what they mean is that a lot of elements of the game were created collectively in the early-mid 70s. But a lot of these people were never credited or paid when Gygax made it into a sellable product. That being said I'm not an Umber Hulk expert!

 

[Parmandur]

Are they saying the “umber hulk” was in folk usage before D&D printed it? They are going to have to prove it. The Umber Hulk came from that dime store pack of toys brought to TSR and named there.

Looking at the full Twitter thread, it was some sort of rant about Zines being where the real action is, and maybe a touch of anarcho-syndicalist histiography.

 

[Malmuria]

I think this historical stuff has been discussed a lot. It seems that Arneson may have been more creative than Gygax, but Gygax was the one who was actually able to bring the game to market.

And from a wider perspective, isn't the whole raison d'etre of the US entertainment industry to commercialise folk art?

Yes, but that's a shame, I think. For me, the essence of the game and the hobby is the wildly creative, diy spirit. That's what I resonate with most in the OSR and in indie games.

 

[Zardnaar]

Looking at the full Twitter thread, it was some sort of rant about Zines being where the real action is, and maybe a touch of anarcho-syndicalist histiography.

So 1912!!!