Star Frontiers Knight Hawks on DriveThru

[darjr]

How did they lose the trademarks?

They didn’t release it in public domain but gave a license, essentially, to redistribute the pdf. Didn’t they?

 

[aramis erak]

How did they lose the trademarks?

They didn’t release it in public domain but gave a license, essentially, to redistribute the pdf. Didn’t they?

Registered trademarks In the US expire from any of:
1) Non-defense
2) end of term without renewal
3) explicit release
4) judicial order terminating it.

One cannot register a trademark if it's too similar to an existing one.
A registered trademark trumps an unregistered one (usually)...

The logic goes this way: Evil hat is in the same industry. So, to be allowed, it must be expired. (most TSR trademarks are.)

Link to Evil Hat's
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:51ugn3.2.1

And TSR's 1983-2004 trademark:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:51ugn3.2.5

Both links to US Patent and Trademark Office website.

Note that the USPTO lists the TSR one as "cancelled" in 2004.

 

[TerraDave]

Had a lot of fun with this back in the day, used it much more then the standard RPG.