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Apparently Richard Garfield DID patent the tapping mechanic in 1994, but the patent expired in 2014. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5662332 "Tapping" may be a trademark, although the only thing I see they've done there is trademark the "tap" image of a curled arrow.

They didn't patent tapping, they patented Magic: The Gathering, which the description of includes tapping. https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,662,332.PN.&OS=PN/5,662,332&RS=PN/5,662,332

Not to mention you're not able to patent an abstract mechanic like that. If it could be done, Milton Bradley and Hasbro would have gotten all of them already.

It's just... TERRIBLE writing. It's reads like someone never took a writing or communication class. And maybe flunked English in high school. (Which is pretty hard to do. It's not until English 101 in college that they stop coddling.) A pattern I see with a lot of bad writing like this is they...

I used to work as a volunteer for Origin/EA back in the late 90's as a Counselor/Seer for their online game, Ultima Online. I quit after a year because I was honestly feeling like I was working a part time job. Shortly after the volunteers launched a class-action lawsuit against EA for wages...

Well done, Don! Well done indeed. I highly doubt his retreat was because he got specific legal advice from anyone. Bullies like this are too arrogant to listen to other people. They just make a big grandiose show, then cut and run back into the shadows when actual repercussions become a...

A repeat of what happened a few years ago with Judge's Guild... Bob Bledsaw II revealed his racist, bigoted alt-right side and ended any chance of JG ever returning to prominence. Surprisingly, this is worse.

Yeah my bad, it was a C&D from Hasbro, not WotC. Which definitely means a separate lawsuit against him.

Well, a settlement would require LaNasa and company to have some kind of leverage, some claim to the trademark that is strong enough WotC would consider a settlement over going to court. They don't. They have nothing, other than a vague claim WotC stopped using it for a period from '97 to '13...

So in today's nuTSR news, Dave Johnson has gone ahead and digitally published Alarms and Journeys #13 which contains among other things: A 13-page lore about "Star Frontiers: New Genesis" which would fail most elementary school writing classes in terms of editing A poorly-disguised HeroQuest...

Agreed. They were willing to not take action back with Gygax magazine because attacking the sons of Gary would not have gone over well. Plus TSR2 had their own logo and didn't go around claiming to be the original.

Yeah, that won't fly. It looks far too much like the original TSR logo, and it doesn't fix all their claims to be "TSR of old resurrected". The whole point of trademarks is to protect the consumer, not the company. And consumers will look at that and BE confused. Is it the original TSR? Plus...

Interesting. The question is, did they actually hire someone to do the logo, or is it built of stock art? And also, did they make the change as part of some settlement in the works, or are they foolishly thinking that at this stage they can change the logo and be untouchable?

And with all this going on, they're still persisting with Star Frontiers: New Genesis. (Let's just add IP violation to the charges shall we?) Supposedly. No, seriously, it's at the printers! We just have to approve layout. And find an editor. And an artist. And a game designer. So... two...

Thanks, Snarf! I feel like it's probably #2, although #3/4 is possible. It does have a feel of "Answering just so can draw this out."

So on Friday TSR LLC has posted their answer to WotC's counterclaim lawsuit. Most of it is boilerplate type responses, denial, can't confirm or deny, etc. I've attached it so anyone with a background in legal can have a look and fill us in.

Based on what? Like, what is he bargaining with? That he'll abandon his lawsuit if WotC pays him? The one that they countered, naming him specifically and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum? Mind you, such a fatal combination of arrogance, hubris and chutzpah does fit his model.

Absolutely true. If they were sitting on something that juicy they wouldn't be able to help crowing about it. If for no other reason to get people to contribute to their Indiegogo campaign.

Yeah, who knows what they're thinking... If they had some kind of smoking gun, it would need to be presented during discovery, right? I can't imagine they have anything of that sort. They were attempting to get former TSR artists to claim they never sold the logo rights to TSR. A stupid...

Thank you! What do you think TSR LLC's/LaNasa's options are at this point?