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<blockquote data-quote="Myrdin Potter" data-source="post: 8890520" data-attributes="member: 6843593">As I have said, I am not a lawyer but I did run the Legal department in one of my jobs and spent $10M+ a year. What I learned is that you try and write the best contract in good faith that you can to dissuade people from taking you to court, but in the USA (I grew up in Canada where fighting in court is not quite the same as the culture in the USA) once it does go to court, you really do not know what you would face. We won a smashing victory in the USA only to have it reopened in Canada. I have been to arbitration hearing where we caught the other side in bald faced lies where the arbitrator still looked for a way to arrive at a more 50/50 split. I also learned that if you have a settlement that is good enough, you just take it. Otherwise you lose hours to days to months of your life and still end up on at best a high percentage dice roll. My business advice to some of the publishers I know is figure out how big a number to present to Hasbro if you actually get them on the ropes. Why work for decades if you can get paid quicker?Very few people are so focused on principles that they will fight to the death on this. Easy to say that but Hasbro is not offering you $10M to settle and go away.From my risk adjusted gut feel, there is a really bad fact pattern for WoTC on the intent of the words we are arguing about here, but Hasbro has some pretty good lawyers and a budget to hire really good help. I have no idea what they actually have up their sleeves and I doubt it is terrible.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Myrdin Potter, post: 8890520, member: 6843593"] As I have said, I am not a lawyer but I did run the Legal department in one of my jobs and spent $10M+ a year. What I learned is that you try and write the best contract in good faith that you can to dissuade people from taking you to court, but in the USA (I grew up in Canada where fighting in court is not quite the same as the culture in the USA) once it does go to court, you really do not know what you would face. We won a smashing victory in the USA only to have it reopened in Canada. I have been to arbitration hearing where we caught the other side in bald faced lies where the arbitrator still looked for a way to arrive at a more 50/50 split. I also learned that if you have a settlement that is good enough, you just take it. Otherwise you lose hours to days to months of your life and still end up on at best a high percentage dice roll. My business advice to some of the publishers I know is figure out how big a number to present to Hasbro if you actually get them on the ropes. Why work for decades if you can get paid quicker? Very few people are so focused on principles that they will fight to the death on this. Easy to say that but Hasbro is not offering you $10M to settle and go away. From my risk adjusted gut feel, there is a really bad fact pattern for WoTC on the intent of the words we are arguing about here, but Hasbro has some pretty good lawyers and a budget to hire really good help. I have no idea what they actually have up their sleeves and I doubt it is terrible. [/QUOTE]

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