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When I read my Herald this morning at work (bathroom reading--I guess where it belongs) I didn't expect this type of reporting to occur. I mean, I know the Herald likes to have a conservative slant, but the moral panic of D&D died out in the 80s. I would think the mainstreaming of D&D via...

Yes, but they were POLYGONAL forts, not the classic castle. And yes, a Palace is not a fortification. So while you may attribute the pike and other factors removing the knights, gun and gun warfare did change a lot of things, especially the invention of the actual canon. There are...

Well, once again, for myself the gun is not how the combat engine of the game system handles things, but rather how the rise of gunpowder warfare changed things. People have mentioned anachronisms in the core D&D world. That's fine. EGG wrote once that the "classic" fantasy setting including...

There's an ignore thread option in the menu under "thread options"--the menu next to the Twitter and Digg links.

As far as trademarks becoming generic, while there are some examples of where they successfully became generic, in many cases the conversion of them to a verb does not necessarily negate the trademark, if this particular list comes into play: List of generic and genericized trademarks -...

The Wikipedia article is a little misleading. First of all, a lot of the trademarks referenced in those cases were established ages ago, and in some cases due to other factors--aspirin for instance was made generic because of War Reperations against Germany after World War I, and it's still a...

You missed Army Maker. In short, I'd agree with you if it would clearly make it hard to communicate what a product does, but army constructor doesn't feel like a neologism, it's definitely not what I would call and awkward euphemism. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this. This, I...

I honestly don't think this is the case. In fact, one of the reasons I've been debating so much in this thread is that so many people nowadays have a knee-jerk reaction to any sort of IP law, or they start foaming at the mouth regarding lawsuits (as in, anybody who is the "victim" of a lawsuit...

I and others have added several examples of other so-called "generic" trademarks--Army builder is not really a generic trademark because it does not meet the criteria. Pawsplay, if you want to seriously debate this topic, you need to bring facts of law and examples, instead of just going with...

But that doesn't matter. Here's the thing, Trademark law is limited to what it can do. It is designed solely to product vendors and consumers from false advertising. It does not prevent anybody saying "Army Builder". All it does is the following: prevent other creators from using the term...

What was really funny was that a local McDonald's in the neighborhood where they were filming called corporate counsel because they didn't know it was being done as a movie and saw those arches go up.

Actually, the problem is no legal precedent has really been set I believe when it comes to publishing. Does a software package with the name Microsoft in it constitute non-infringement. This seems to be a grey area of the law that has not been decided yet, at least not through litigation. For...

Well, at least we're all learning I guess... I find the USPTO search engine fun. John Troy was once registered for natural sauces...been dead since 2002 though... I also found out that Lone Wolf is not a registered Trademark for anything involving gaming. If Mongoose still has it they...

Well, I am trying to be informed. I spent last night reading the entire link I showed above. You can use your own name, but there can be objections based on other factors. First, in the US, you can't register a trademark that is solely based on a surname. There's a whole set of rules on...

For those looking for more information (and who feel like reading a lot of stuff) about Trademark Law (at least how it's applied in the US, including a lot of references to court cases and specific examples), I highly recommend this link. US TMEP 2009 Chapter 1200

Names are tricky. The primary concern of names is consumer confusion. If there are other John R. Troy's in the world, the use of JRTDB (edited for ease) as a trademark is probably not going to be opposed. (For instance, there is a JohnTroy.com devoted to some signer who is not me. I'm not...

I guess I don't understand either, because what I am saying is that it is not wrong to combine words and make them a unique statement. I'm saying this goes back almost 100 years. And unlike copyright law, which was changed and extended over time, and patents, where things might have gotten...

Law and legal precedent, going back almost a century, disagree with you. Descriptive Marks were and are very common. Between the USPTO lawyers who review and the peer process once it goes into the marketplace, there are enough checks and balances.

You might have a point about apologizing to Privateer, but they don't need to apologize for getting the Trademark itself. Plus, they've likely invested time and money get this trademark. They should give it up for the sake of a few people going off the wall, whose potential "boycott" might...

Maybe in Europe, but I posted several examples of descriptive trademarks in other posts. Just do a search for "builder" on the USPTO search form. Combinations of nouns and verbs work. There's enough legal precedent and practical use that I don't see this being a special case.