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Message: <blockquote data-quote="prosfilaes" data-source="post: 6427815" data-attributes="member: 40166">The point of trademark is let a company build a brand, so if you buy a Ford, you know that it's backed by the Ford company (for better or worse). But they wanted third parties to be able to make parts compatible with a Ford F150 or Windows XP or D&D, so you can use the name on your product, but you can't trade on their quality; you make or sell a part for the Ford F150, but not Ford's part for the F150. Of course, companies often don't like that, so they use technological means (NES and Sega Genesis) or licenses that make things available (like the OGL) to stop people from using the trademark or making compatible parts. (Or lawsuits, like TSR vs. Mayfair, Sega vs. Accolade or Lexmark Int'l v. Static Control Components, which the courts frowned on but could often produce settlements.)I think that was as much GW as the law. A Beanie Baby price guide was sued, and the judge's ruling sounds slightly annoyed that the license for the licensed price guides insisted they say "used without permission".</blockquote>