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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnRTroy" data-source="post: 5469809" data-attributes="member: 2732">True.However, there are two things to remember.  In a legal sense, a Trademark is designed to protect consumers from fraud or not being able to find the correct items.  In some isolated cases, the law has allowed Trademarks (at least in dispute), to either be cancelled (due to dilution amongst the populace--as what happened with asprin), or sometimes reassgined.  The latter rarely happens, but usually when it does it involves things such as a strong personal presence, like a band who's members are known well vs. the people who own them--especially if the ownership isn't clear (no registered trademarks).  Hypotheticaly, if somebody wanted to do a class action lawsuit against D&D, I think the best bet would be on the trademark, but that's a huge longshot and I don't think D&D a game that has evolved over time is the equivalent of a band with performers.  (The long shot would be arguing the new version of D&D is fraudulent, but that's not likely to happen).Secondly, any brand name carries a sort of goodwill, for good or for ill of the company.  In recent years, a lot of companies have tried to re-align brands to mean something else...the most obvious are cable channels.  That carries a huge risk.  I think people are getting fed up seeing movies on the Weather channel and stuff that's fiction on one of the Historical channels.  In this case, brands are starting to become meaningless.The owners of D&D can do what they want, but at the same time the risk is great if the brand has a strong identity.  So called "Reboots" are risky, especially if the product is still popular and has an active following.  (A lot of people talk about the BSG reboot, but keep in mind that particular franchise just had a small die-hard following and 30 years had passed with no major activity, not akin to the very successful and most popular table-top RPG ever, the one that inspired all the imitators, computer and otherwise).  If enough people reject the change, and they can't get enough new people, then D&D as a brand will falter and it will either change course to woo those people again (and there are some signs its doing that), or it will fail and we'll see some competitor take up the plate.</blockquote>

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