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

[Morrus]

I don't see their C&D statement doing anything wrong and in fact just trying to make other publishers aware that they spent time and money registering this trademark.

Well, the C&D issue is a bit of a misnomer - I don't think anybody strongly disagrees that other companies should use a different product name for their products.

It's the "force all your forum users to use the term correctly in conversation" bit which is a bit odd.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I finally have a few minutes, so I wanted to comment on a few things.

I should say up front that I believe in protecting one's trademark and their intellectual property. This is paramount to anybody who works in a creative endeavor.

That being said, this is a classic example of "what not to do." Here are a few thoughts I have on the subject:

1. The trademark is a weak one, as several others have mentioned above. It doesn't stand out like Dragonlance, Dungeons & Dragons, Deadlands, etc. does. I could easily see any number of fans coming up with the name without ever hearing of Lone Wolf.

2. Lone Wolf is not a well-known brand. They can't afford to be making enemies. If they were the NFL, then maybe they could. Right now, every dollar counts, and putting off fans is not the way to go.

3. Are these fans costing Lone Wolf any money? If it was something like Ema's Character Sheets, then I could see that. But from all accounts, this is just the work of fans with no money involved and doesn't have anything to do with Lone Wolf's particular Army Builder.

4. You do not build a house when you're busy tearing someone else's down. When you go after fans and Privateer Press like that, you're not building a fan base.

5. What is your legacy? When we think of TSR's web policies, we remember how they were tyrants, shutting sites down. The company is long-gone now, but their internet legacy remains. Lone Wolf has just created a new legacy for themselves, one that portrays them in a negative light. People are going to remember this, and this will do nothing but hurt the brand.

6. Pick your battles. Decide for yourself if this was worth fighting. Don't fight a battle just because you can. Look at how WotC handles things. Now, I don't always agree with them, but generally they leave fan sites and fan works alone. They only send out C&D letters to those who infringe on their ability to make a profit.

7. Build your fan base. If the use of Army Builder on another company's forum is endangering you, that's a problem. Instead, focus on the positive, and build up your Army Builder brand, preferably on your own forums and in more public places like EN World.

Personally, I feel that this move will hurt Lone Wolf for some time to come. They have just put off several potential customers, and perhaps angered some existing customers. I know that I won't be buying from them any time soon.

 

[arscott]

Basically, the NFL doesn't want anybody using the phrase "Super Bowl" other than them, even though it has entered the common vernacular. So you often hear radio personalities making light of the situation by calling it things like "the big game" or "the end-of-the-year championship game." It sounds silly to say that instead of Super Bowl, and all this does is cause a negative image of the brand in the mind of consumers. Granted, people are so into football that it won't cause them any financial distress. Still, the possibility is there for them to do more harm than good.

The difference is, The NFL has a legitimate claim to "Super Bowl". It's not a generic description of the product (If Lone Wolf ran football, I assume it'd be called "The Playoff Game ®"), and the phrase is well known and widely used entirely due to the NFL's influence

Superbowl is copyrighted?

Trademarked. Which is very different from copyrighted

So hypothetically, if I had this really great bowl I wanted to term "The super bowl"...

Actually, that'd probably be okay, as long as you don't use the mark in a way that implies a connection to the big game. Trademarks are category specific--That's why you can have both Skippy peanut butter and Skippy dogfood in the same supermarket.

But the use that the NFL goes after is clearly designed to create a connection between the infringing product or service and the NFL's product. They're not saying "Use this TV to watch some random thing that happens to be called the superbowl" they're saying, "Use this TV to watch the NFL Playoff game". The NFL's position is that if you want to use their game to sell your TV (or your church, or whatever), that they should get some money out of it.

 

[Glade Riven]

BTW, a quick rundown of US Trademark Law basics

• Just about anything can be a registered trademarked - even if someone else has trademarked it before. Partially, this is because it is legal for businesses of two completely different feilds to have similar names or logos (You won't see Delta Machinery sue Nintendo over the use of the Triforce logo in a Zelda game).
• Registering a trademark does not mean that it will hold up in court, but you do have to have a trademark registered in order to defend it in court.
• A Trademark can be claimed without registering it (using TM instead of the Circle R). Companies usually do this for a number of reasons, such as time (product needs to get to market), variations of the orginal logo, or registering items in bulk to save on cost. Still needs to be registered for court purposes.
• Fair Use is a nice, fuzzy grey area designed to protect common people from being sued for using a term, either because it is generic or it is referencing whatever is trademarked.

There's a goverment website with more details, but a lot of it does seem to come down to how good of a lawyer you have and how long the trademark has been used/registered.

This letter looks to be written either by or at the order of someone who doesn't quite understand US Trademark law, thereby just making them look stupid. It also implies certain misconceptions about digital media and interactive tools. I don't see this going to court, or at least not lasting very long before the judge dismisses the complaint.

Oh, fun fact: Fan-created content is classified under trademark law as Derivitive Works, which means that holders of trademarks can legally order you to cease and desist. It's rare for it to be excercised, though, due to it not being the the companies best interest (cost, alienates customer base, hurts the brand, etc.).

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Yet more reason to completely destroy the concepts of copyright, IP, DRM and patents.
Ick. becoming a deadly lead weight aorund our necks.
Corporations are immortal, they have been made to have status equal to a real person but don't pay inheritance taxes (think about it), and now can donate as much as they like to whatever candidate they like in the USA (see recent supreme court rulling, and think about what that means).
So, they cna do all kinds of stuff which in the normal sane world would be considered INSANE, like this issue. It's pure Kafka

I'm an artist. But I'd rather copyright etc dies, than freedom does.

Moderator's note:
Above, we see a post that is sliding into real-world politics. While some discussion of the details of relevant law may be allowed here from time to time, in general real-world political matters are not open for discussion on EN World.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Well, the C&D issue is a bit of a misnomer - I don't think anybody strongly disagrees that other companies should use a different product name for their products.

It's the "force all your forum users to use the term correctly in conversation" bit which is a bit odd.

Actually, that isn't so unusual. I remember in the late 1970s a little pamphlet came with my LEGO set telling people to try to avoid using the term "Legos" and saying instead "LEGO bricks and toys". Companies really work hard to prevent their trademark from becoming a verb.

And actually, the few posts from Lone Wolf developer tell me they are not as "evil" as some people are implying.

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2010/02/01/33231/comment-page-1#comment-47350

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2010/02/01/33231/comment-page-1#comment-47356

 

[Morrus]

Actually, that isn't so unusual. I remember in the late 1970s a little pamphlet came with my LEGO set telling people to try to avoid using the term "Legos" and saying instead "LEGO bricks and toys". Companies really work hard to prevent their trademark from becoming a verb.

That's a curious regional thing. Here in the UK it's simply "lego", and when I hear Americans say "legos" it sounds very strange to my ears!

 

[Remus Lupin]

It sounds to be like these guys won the Trademark fair and square. I don't see them doing anything unethical or questionable at all. They did their due diligence and nobody opposed their registration.

I don't see their C&D statement doing anything wrong and in fact just trying to make other publishers aware that they spent time and money registering this trademark.

You may very well be right, but if I'm reading your analysis correctly, then all I have to do is trademark a commonly used term, and then sit on it for five years, without calling any attention to it by sending out a C&D letter to others using the term. Then, when the clock turns over on the incontestability clause, I pounce mercilessly on people using the term casually.

I don't have any problem with Lone Wolf trademarking the term, but their behavior seems kind of draconian to me.

By the same token, I'm not in favor of eliminating the concepts of trademark or copyright, but at least in the U.S. this is a pretty good example of why it probably needs to be reformed.

 

[Yair]

I hate the current intellectual property laws.

Can I say that, or is the phrase "I Hate The Current Intellectual Property Laws" someone's trademark?

Yair (TM) (C)

 

[Tale]

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.

Dude, even "Superhero" is an officially registered Trademark. Co-owned by Marvel and DC.

But not super hero. hah