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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VelvetViolet" data-source="post: 8775607" data-attributes="member: 6686357">I know the difference. Copyright lasts for a fixed period after the creation/publication of a work and/or the death of the author. Trademark has to be actively used or it will lapse. They no longer work as intended because of Disney lobbying the government to extend copyright terms to the point where they're actively detrimental to preservation efforts.TSR stopped selling Star Frontiers in 1985. WotC only started selling PDFs in 2017. That's a large enough gap for the trademark to lapse, because trademarks have to be actively used or they will lapse. If WotC didn't register the trademark before NuTSR did, then they don't have a claim to the trademark anymore.Using PDF sales of old books to maintain trademark (not copyright) when you're not actually making any new products with it feels like it's exploiting a loophole. Trademark law was created before the advent of electronic storage, so it doesn't take into account situations where someone might try to game the system by trying to maintain a trademark without actually doing any effort by simply selling a book on kindle unlimited and then forget it exists. The Burroughs Estate is doing more than just keeping Tarzan in print. They're actively engaged in making new works too. If keeping a book in print was enough to maintain a trademark, then the Stoker Estate would still have the trademark to Dracula.What nuTSR is doing is clearly wrong, I don't dispute that, but that doesn't let WotC off the hook. Trademark is not supposed to last specifically forever, it's supposed to last however long it's being used. I feel like most of the posters here don't actually understand trademark or copyright law or the difference between them. I'm not a lawyer or a judge, but I can read the government websites explaining how these laws work.I get that nuTSR are bigots, but that doesn't let WotC off the hook. WotC let the trademark lapse. Now they're trying to retroactively argue that they didn't because they're selling (low quality) PDFs now.If WotC wins, then they're setting a precedent that you can retroactively reclaim a trademark that you let lapse without actually registering it.</blockquote>

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