ENNIES Seal (Legal help requested)

[Michael Morris]

This year's Ennie seal included the d20 logo in embossed format. Talks with WotC are in progress about the use of the seal are in progress and a ruling will come from the legal-types by the end of August. In the interim, here is a version of the award show seal without the d20 logo.

All images are GIF and are quite large since you can resize going down without quality loss.

Use of these images is granted free of charge so long as you do not use an image inappropriate to the award you received. (In other words, if your a nominee, use the bronze nominee seal, not the gold one).

 

[Michael Morris]

Silver

 

[Michael Morris]

And the gold.

 

[fba827]

Looking good

I am continuously impressed by the work put out here. This goes for all the d20 companies and even goes to refer to people who do things like this graphic design work.


Edit: never mind whatever else I had here before.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Not to put the issue in even greater doubt, but I don't see how "d20 System" is any less of a WOTC trademark than the d20 logo itself...

They are ok with one but not the other?

???

Wulf

 

[HellHound]

Wulf - as an award it is ok to mention the d20 system, and it is ok to use the d20 logo on it since it is not a d20 product (technically this might still be an infringement, but since the awards are for the d20 system and promote it, using the name is not currently an issue).

The issue at hand is that you cannot modify the d20 logo when you put it on a d20 product. Thus the award-winners cannot use the current version of the Seal on their products because it violates that rule. We are currently talking with WotC to see if this is ok. Andy says it should be fine. Mary says it should be fine. WotC legal says they will answer us later...

1,000 thanks to Micheal Morris not only for the seal, but for approaching WotC about this potential problem that could plague the award winners if they want to include the seal on their award-winning products. Michael contacted Andy Smith and Mary and got "definite maybes" from both and a promise that WotC legal will respond to the query shortly.

 

[spacecrime.com]

Very nice.

One thing I'd love to do is make some stickers for sticking on the various award-winning books (including a certain rules supplement) in my store. Does anybody have any thoughts on how to do that? Is there any way to do up a whole bunch of stickers for those stores that might be interested in promoting the award?

cheers,

 

[kingpaul]

This is excellent. I was hoping that there might be a logo to put on products. I'll wait until you have a definite answer though.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

The issue at hand is that you cannot modify the d20 logo when you put it on a d20 product. Thus the award-winners cannot use the current version of the Seal on their products because it violates that rule. We are currently talking with WotC to see if this is ok. Andy says it should be fine. Mary says it should be fine. WotC legal says they will answer us later...

A ha! Gotcha-- thanks for the clarification.

I also mentioned (to Osseum, I think) the idea of ENNIES stickers to put on the covers of nominated books-- I think it is a great idea, I just don't know a good way to do it logistically. I can easily envision that some customers may not even want a sticker on their books.

Wulf

 

[spacecrime.com]

Wulf: while I don't know the details, it's apparently relatively easy to make stickers that peel off with no mess. We've got various "New!" and "Local Author" stickers that do this already from the ABA -- they even make an "Award Winner" sticker, but I'd like one a little more specific.

cheers,