TSR Now it’s WotC’s Turn: WotC Moves Against TSR3

I guess after you provoke somebody enough, they’ll eventually bite back. The company has begun trademark cancellation procedures against the newest TSR.

TSR3 briefly filed for a court declaration on Dec 7th as to their ownership of the TSR trademarks — with an IndieGoGo campaign to fund it — and then voluntarily dismissed it a couple of days later on Dec 9th.

This filing is dated Dec 6th, the day before TSR3 launched its campaign.

In WotC’s response, they cite fraud as one of the causes of action, alleging that TSR3 misled the trademark office in its original application.

Mike Dunford, on Twitter, breaks down the action.

TSR - TSR3.5 Voluntarily Dismisses Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by TSR3 against D&D owners Wizards of the Coast a few days ago was voluntarily dismissed. Dismissal without prejudice means that the suit can be filed again. The suit lasted two days from the 7th to the 9th of December. The IndieGoGo fundraiser to fund it is still running...

www.enworld.org

TSR - TSR3.5 Launches IndieGogo Campaign to "Stop" WotC

The latest in the TSR3 saga, which has gone quiet for a while, is a new IndieGoGo campaign launched to "stop Wizards of the Coast". They cite wrongful bullying of TSR, and refusal to answer requests that WotC show TSR "proof of their claims" (although the campaign page doesn't mention what those...

www.enworld.org

 

[darjr]

They have boxes at the con con!

 

[adamantyr]

Plus they are openly selling items with the TSR logo. Knowing full well there is a lawsuit involving them.

This will not look good at all to a judge or jury.

 

[Faolyn]

Plus they are openly selling items with the TSR logo. Knowing full well there is a lawsuit involving them.

This will not look good at all to a judge or jury.

I can't find the original photos again but... aren't those photos they themselves took (as opposed to photos taken by a patron)? Are they actively flaunting the logo now, or just too short-sighted to have thought about maybe they should move the incriminating evidence out of the way for a few minutes.?

Ah well, it's most likely a bit of both.

 

[Deset Gled]

I can't find the original photos again but... aren't those photos they themselves took (as opposed to photos taken by a patron)? Are they actively flaunting the logo now, or just too short-sighted to have thought about maybe they should move the incriminating evidence out of the way for a few minutes.?

Ah well, it's most likely a bit of both.

The originals come from the DHSM Facebook page.

My guess is that their lawyer said they had to take down the offending logos from the web, but LaNasa figured he was safe to keep selling them at the museum. I'm 90% certain the photos were taken by Ernie, who didn't realize that he had captured anything incriminating.

 

[Ancalagon]

A friend of mine and I once watched that and The Creeping Terror back to back to assess which was worse.

Dead heat.

Funny Games was a VERY close third.

what is your opinion of Manos: the hands of fate"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

what is your opinion of Manos: the hands of fate"

Compared to those? MUCH better. And it’s not a good movie.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To be clear, they’re bad for different reasons. The Room is like Manos in that they’re bad because the filmmakers didn’t know how to do better. Wiseau was just worse at it. The Creeping Terror would normally fall into the same category as Manos- for example, the landing of the alien spacecraft was created by taking cells of a US a rocket launch, flipping the film L/R, and splicing it in to run in reverse. Except you could easily read the “UƧA“ on the side of the rocket, in big bold, reversed letters, and the rocket exhaust was clearly going backwards into its engines. But it’s OK, everything looked more normal when the alien spacecraft took off at the end of the movie…using the same footage, still flipped to read “UƧA“, but in the correct chronological order.

And if TCT had been released when completed, Manos would probably even be considered worse.

But the studio recognized TCT as the drek it was, and originally shelved it. And so it stayed unreleased for YEARS, until some studio executive decided they might as well make SOME money from the film they’d already paid for. When they checked its condition out, however, they realized they had lost some of the soundtrack. No problem, right? Just re-record the missing parts, right? Except they had lost the original script. Nobody knew what was being said.

At this point, most rational minds would give up and bin the film completely. That didn’t happen.

Instead, they recorded voiceover narratives to fill the gap. Remember, this is without benefit of knowing the actual plot. They just made things up. And the voiceovers they came up with were (fittingly) just as ludicrously bad as the filmed images. Some of it sounded like it had been badly cribbed from 50’s-era health & morality school films.

The end result is a monumental trainwreck.

 

[Willie the Duck]

what is your opinion of Manos: the hands of fate"

Manos has bits of creativity, and I give it lots of leeway for being an actual amateur's first attempt. It would be like if some film school student's student film was released -- it isn't good, but you expect that.

 

[DRIZZN'T]

Manos is light work, I prefer MITCHELL or POD PEOPLE.

 

[Deset Gled]

And another lawsuit update...
Now they have filed an application for leave to appear pro hac vice. This is to have Russell D. Nugent represent them instead of the local counsel they engaged with to file the lawsuit. (Who is listed as their back-up should the primary not be able to fulfill duties.)
I am no lawyer, so I'll leave the interpretation of this move to others. The fact it's the same law firm they tried to start this with is interesting... Akiva Cohen warned them they should stay away from this case on Twitter.

It looks like the Pro Hace Vice has been accepted, and a Magistrate Judge has been assigned. Not a big update, but it's fun to watch Pacer get updated.