Lone Wolf sends Cease & Desist letters to anyone using the term 'Army Builder'

[JoeGKushner]

Initial problem would be making Army Builder, a fairly generic terms here, as a brand as opposed to making a unique name. I suspect they'll find this an uphill battle.

 

[Glyfair]

Initial problem would be making Army Builder, a fairly generic terms here, as a brand as opposed to making a unique name. I suspect they'll find this an uphill battle.

Yeah, I'd have to dispute their "because of us the term is popular" claim. I know I heard that term used around the gaming stores at least as far back as the 80s.

 

[pawsplay]

I'm going to suggest that Army Builder is only barely more than descriptive. "Army building" is a common term from the wargaming hobby. It would be like trying to trademark Skip Rope for your brand of jump rope; it might be granted simply because there are no competitive trademarks, but so what?

 

[Grimstaff]

SO, "we've spent 12 years building the brand called Army Builder, so anyone else who uses the term Army Builder is making the term generic"!?

Hahahahaha

Next someone will start suing over the term "Rulebook"...

 

[Krensky]

Obviously they need real IP lawyers. They trademark a common descriptive phrase (they named their software what it does) and then they cry foul when people use that term for any software that does similar things. This would be like naming your word processor, I don't know, Word Processor and then complaining that people are diluting your trademark.

The Grandma rule prevents me from fully expressing my full opinion of this.

 

[Mephistopheles]

PLEASE NOTE! Anyone is absolutely welcome to write their own roster creation tools - we have no desire to suppress other people's creativity. We simply require that everyone refrain from using the Army Builder® trademark when doing so.

It's tempting to argue that the trademark was generic when they registered it. As someone else mentioned, it's a term that was already in use and it could be looked upon as Lone Wolf trying to use that to their advantage: if I'm looking for software to build an army with I expect I'd enter "army builder" rather than "roster creation tool" into my search engine of choice. It seems a little like wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

 

[Obryn]

This part here...

Due to our success with the Army Builder® brand, there have been a number of fan-created tools that their creators chose to name something along the lines of "Jim's Army Builder". Since they weren't aware of the legal implications of using the name (we assume), they chose a name that everyone already recognized as synonymous with the creation of rosters for a miniatures game. Unfortunately, this represents a direct, although unintended, infringement of our trademark rights and, if left uncontested, could result in the trademark being lost.

...is the stretch. I've never heard of an actual program called Army Builder, but if I were to make a program for building miniatures armies, I might call it something like Obryn's Army Builder. "Army Builder" is the function of the program - not a proper title.

And you can see later in the same post where I think the author realizes what a corner he's painted himself into...

and that a suitable alternative term needed to be used to generically refer to the various fan-created tools. Acceptable alternate terms would include "points calculator", "list creator", or "roster construction tool".

...because these are somehow descriptive and generic terms whereas "army builder" is not. It's nonsense. People don't use the phrase "army builder" because of Lone Wolf's program. They use it because that's exactly what their self-made program does. If you stand around a table and ask people to "build their armies" it's not a veiled reference to their program - it's what the players are doing.

This happens with other rather generic names, too. Witness the actions of both Monster Cable and Monster Energy.

-O

 

[kinem]

Yeah ... never heard of Lone Wolf but now I'll be sure never to do business with them. I think I'll make a program called Army Builder though, that sounds cool.

 

[N0Man]

I am surprised that something as generic as "Army Builder" was successfully trademarked, rather than "Lone Wolf Army Builder". I wonder if it would stand up to any challenge.

However, that said, if they own the trademark then they are certainly within their rights from objecting to someone using that trademark for another product as long as that trademark is upheld. They can ask others not to use that phrase in their software as well.

However, there's not much they can say to prevent the average person who is not affiliated with a piece of software from referring to it as an 'Army Builder', as far as I know. You can't stop people from discussing something that is trademarked, or making a comparison to something that is trademarked.

In other words, you can stop people from saying, "Hey, come check out my Army Builder called Jimbo's Extreme Army Builder", but you can't really stop someone from saying, "If you are looking for an army builder, I hear that Jimbo's Extreme Army Designer isn't bad."

It's also funny that while trying to protect this laughably generic trademark name, they are marketing a program to be used with many trademarked games. I wonder if any of the names and content in their program violates trademark also....

 

[S'mon]

The US Trade Marks office really registered that? You guys will register (& Patent) anything! I can't see that getting registered in the UK. Nor 'Player's Handbook', BTW.