TSR Now it’s WotC’s Turn: WotC Moves Against TSR3

I guess after you provoke somebody enough, they’ll eventually bite back. The company has begun trademark cancellation procedures against the newest TSR.

TSR3 briefly filed for a court declaration on Dec 7th as to their ownership of the TSR trademarks — with an IndieGoGo campaign to fund it — and then voluntarily dismissed it a couple of days later on Dec 9th.

This filing is dated Dec 6th, the day before TSR3 launched its campaign.

In WotC’s response, they cite fraud as one of the causes of action, alleging that TSR3 misled the trademark office in its original application.

Mike Dunford, on Twitter, breaks down the action.

TSR - TSR3.5 Voluntarily Dismisses Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by TSR3 against D&D owners Wizards of the Coast a few days ago was voluntarily dismissed. Dismissal without prejudice means that the suit can be filed again. The suit lasted two days from the 7th to the 9th of December. The IndieGoGo fundraiser to fund it is still running...

www.enworld.org

TSR - TSR3.5 Launches IndieGogo Campaign to "Stop" WotC

The latest in the TSR3 saga, which has gone quiet for a while, is a new IndieGoGo campaign launched to "stop Wizards of the Coast". They cite wrongful bullying of TSR, and refusal to answer requests that WotC show TSR "proof of their claims" (although the campaign page doesn't mention what those...

www.enworld.org

 

[Charlaquin]

Um, kind of, but not really.

I understand that people can say, "attention is profit" and it has a nice ring, kind of like "all publicity is good publicity."

But it's not true. All publicity is not, in fact, good publicity. And while it can be easier for people to monetize attention than it used to be, it is certainly not true that mere attention is profit. For every instagram influencer out there, there are tons of people who court attention (or achieve it) who were unable to monetize it. This can be especially true if your desired means of getting attention is, "Filing expensive lawsuits with no chance of success against well-heeled corporations with no desire to settle."

The sun will rise, the sun will set, attorneys will get paid, and everyone will forget about LaNasa and his crusade except the bill collectors.

TLDR; if your plan is to just get attention without thinking through the monetization part, you're missing the most important step.

Well I believe the Gofundme was supposed to be a monetization step, likely one of many. But, yeah, didn’t really think it through.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It’s a bit like when a verbal bully gets bodied by a much bigger more fit guy that he was trying to bully.

I don’t really love to see it, but there is some small satisfaction to it.

 

[grimslade]

I think (based on a quick and lazy search of Trademark registrations) that Neo-TSR has currently registered design marks on the "man in the moon" logo and a variation on the the blocky diagonal letters logo, not the lizardman or wizard(man) logos.

The focus on this particular mark makes me think the Wizard's lawyers are not all that confident in their ability to claim general trademark rights to the various TSR marks as active trademarks (or don't want to risk an adverse ruling on WotC's ambiguous rights to them as trademarks), but that they think they have a stronger case that this particular, very distinctive mark, is misleading to the public (which is totally what neo-TSR is trying to do with it). On the "man in the moon" design there is a clear violation of WotC copyright even if they are found to have no valid trademark claim.

I also think because this case is so egregious, WotC are hoping for a quick determination and multiple claims would slow that down a bit.

 

[Umbran]

On the "man in the moon" design there is a clear violation of WotC copyright even if they are found to have no valid trademark claim.

That may be true, but is irrelevant on the current WotC filing. The USPTO doesn't handle copyright, and this isn't a copyright infringement lawsuit.

 

[adamantyr]

Apparently, The WotC petition came the day before LaNasa launched his Indigogo campaign and his counter suit. (Per Tenkar of Tenkar's tavern.)

What this means is that their poorly-crafted and ill-advised suit for a Declaratory Judgement had a basis in that they were hoping (rather naively) to get a judgment in their favor which would negate WotC's attempt to cancel their trademark claim.

That also means WotC has been preparing for this for some months, since the first drama took place. Which is bad news for LaNasa indeed, as it means this wasn't a reaction but a deliberate planned action.

 

[darjr]

Which also means those costs of wotcs might be in the days and days worth of top bill high end lawyers billable hours.

We’ll lasagna, you’ve done it now.

 

[vecna00]

This. Except WotC is using it as their attack.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Which also means those costs of wotcs might be in the days and days worth of top bill high end lawyers billable hours.

We’ll lasagna, you’ve done it now.

doesn't matter. TSR LLC has very little valuation (they don't actually have products; they're essentially vaporware). So LaNasa lets TSR LLC go bankrupt and fold, and because it's an LLC, he won't have to pay anything out of his own pocket. He'll just create another LLC. Which he's done before. Several times.

 

[darjr]

TSR Hobbies has several rare D&D items in the museum that were donated to them.


oh and a lot of dollar store dice.

 

[Dausuul]

This is what happens when you delve too greedily and too deep.