TSR TSR (2) Confirms TSR (3)'s Acquisition of Trademark (Updated!)

Jayson Elliot registered the TSR trademark back in 2011 and used it to launch Gygax Magazine along with Ernie and Luke Gygax. The two Gygax's left the company a few years later after Gary Gygax's (co-founder of TSR (1) back in the 1970s) widow, Gail Gygax, forced the closure of Gygax Magazine. Then, earlier this year, TSR (3) swooped in on the TSR trademark, after Jayson Elliot accidentally let it lapse, as TSR (2) confirms:

We have owned the TSR trademark since 2011. Last year, we missed a filing date, and another company registered it, though we are still using it in commerce. While we could win a lawsuit, we frankly don't have the money to litigate. So, we're licensing it back from them.

As a result, there are two companies now using the name TSR. You can tell when it's us because we're the only ones using the new logo.

They're opening a museum in Lake Geneva at the old TSR house, and we wish them success with it, it's important to celebrate the legacy that Gary Gygax created.

Ernie Gygax, formerly of TSR (1) under Gary Gygax, then working with Jayson Elliot as part of TSR (2), is one of the founders of of TSR (3), and confirmed in his (now infamous) interview --

The other TSR is a licensee because [Jayson Elliot] let it lapse. But he had absolutely ... love for the game and the products. There was no reason to say 'oh you've screwed up, oh it's all ours, ha ha ha ha!' Instead, Justin [LaNasa] came to him and said ... we love that you're doing Top Secret things, we have a much broader goal for the whole thing. But there's no reason for you to stop or even have any troubles. Justin said, I'll take care of the paperwork, you just give me $10 a year, and you put out all this love for old school gaming that you can. And we appreciate that you were there to try and pick up things, and you produced Gygax Magazine, for in its time that you're also working on a game that you love to play ... because Top Secret was Jayson's love, as a young man.

TSR (2), still run by Jayson Elliot, publishes Top Secret, and is not connected to TSR (3) other than now having to license it’s own name from them. TSR (3) has also registered the trademark to Star Frontiers, a game owned by and still currently sold by D&D-owner WotC.

In other news the GYGAX trademark appears to have lapsed.

UPDATE! TSR (2) has decided NOT to license its own name from TSR (3):

Update to our earlier tweet - we will NOT be licensing anything from the new company claiming rights to the TSR logos. We are not working with them in any fashion.

 

[cmad1977]

We’re obviously going pretty far off topic now, but I’ve personally never seen D&D / polyhedral dice at the Dollar Store … I wonder if it’s a regional thing?

I’ve seen them in Los Angeles.

 

[nyvinter]

Both those accounts are Varg. And this is a person who doesn't like being called a neo-nazi because "the nazis lacked follow-through." Ernie follows him too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tim Kask is good people and I believe would be what Gary would be more like now. Here is what he has to say about this. And it isn’t good for TSR3

skip to minute 44:00 and watch till the end if you’d like.

"Being named DiMaggio does not mean you can hit a lot of home runs. It does not mean you can hit any home runs."

 

[Riley]

I like Tim Kask.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I would guess that anyone who has no problem with all the stuff little Ernie is saying, and what big Ernie may have meant in what he had said, probably also have a house full of My Pillow products. I feel sorry for that company's employees, and no matter how great the products may be, I will never give that man a penny of my money. To relate this to gaming, sometimes it feels...... wrong...... to use Lovecraft's works, but because the stories are public domain, companies can take them and update things for modern sensibilities, the same as WotC is trying to do with 5E.

 

[Sacrosanct]

The more that unfolds in this drama, the more and more it looks like (to me anyway, just my opinion) that Ernie is more of a pawn than a leader. His history of actual actions with LGBT people in his life seems to tell us that he is supportive. And yet, he keeps surrounding himself with questionable actors. It's pretty obvious that he's not very well spoken, and meanders from topic to topic, so I wouldn't rule out that he's repeating things he keeps getting told by the people he hangs out with. And those people, knowing what we know about them, let's just say it wouldn't shock me if they were using Ernie just for his name to cash out on their own.

Don't get me wrong, he's a grown adult and should be responsible for his own actions. But it appears that it's more and more likely he's being played by the toxic people he associates himself with. People who know how to get his attention and favor "Your dad was the greatest! All this modern stuff is garbage and your dad was treated horribly! Let's work together to bring back his legacy!" They play to his appeal for nostalgia and his apparent need to fill his dad's shoes, and the next thing you know, Ernie is waxing poetic about how wonderful the exclusive men's clubs were of the 19th century.

I mean, Luke stood up for him (not surprising since they are brothers), but actually gave examples to show Ernie isn't this raving bigot. I trust Luke, and he certainly knows Ernie much better than any of us. And I truly believe that if he didn't bring toxic people like LaNasa into his inner circle, he wouldn't appear nearly as bad as he does. For a group of people who constantly espouse they they are the true Tolkien fans, the parallels between Theoden and Grima are pretty apparent.

 

[Black Dougal]

Oh dear...you can learn from your mistakes or you can blame your mother and your "religious" beliefs. This isn't going to end well for TSR 3.0.

I saw earlier about apologies, I doubt we're going to hear one that is sincere if at all.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Sigh....these are comments he hasn't really said in the past with this much vitriol. He needs to get away from LaNasa and the toxic people who keep pushing him.

He needs an intervention. LaNasa isn't going to provide him the ability to take over his father's legacy or become the next great Gygax creator.

I mean LaNasa is the same guy who forced his female employees to wrestle in grits to see who would get a promotion. That's what kind of guy he is. Ernie would be best served to get as far away from him as possible.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article240600416.html

 

[darjr]

Sigh....these are comments he hasn't really said in the past with this much vitriol. He needs to get away from LaNasa and the toxic people who keep pushing him.

He needs an intervention. LaNasa isn't going to provide him the ability to take over his father's legacy or become the next great Gygax creator.

I mean LaNasa is the same guy who forced his female employees to wrestle in grits to see who would get a promotion. That's what kind of guy he is. Ernie would be best served to get as far away from him as possible.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article240600416.html

Wow. Who in their right mind would have ANYTHING to do with that guy?

 

[Riley]

Ernie's TSR (3) business partner Sir Justin LaNasa:

https://justinlanasa.com/weapon-designer

(A Google search result shows the preview text "Welcome to the LaNasa family were family, tattoos, politics and guns are our thing.", although the text on the page differs.)