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.

 

[Voranzovin]

The phylactery used in D&D bears no resemblance to the Tefillin, for that matter: phylactery is a broader Greek word for Talisman, and it seems the original D&D phylactery was actually a hidden jar. More Universal's "The Mummy" than anything: so more than passing Orientalist, but not drawing from anti-Semetic tropes per se. It'd be a pretty silly Lich who wore their Horcrux on their brow and hands.

Yeah I used to wear tefillin every day while saying shacharite back when I was religious. I never saw the Dnd use of "phylactery" as having anti-semitic connotations, in part because liches don't have any other tropes commonly associated with anti-semitic stereotypes. Plus, frankly, the practice is so obscure that in my experience most Jews don't even know what tefillin are, let alone non-Jews.

 

[Steampunkette]

Disregard my cell phone had me back on page one as if it were page 29.

 

[mythago]

Copyrighted, possibly.

No. It is, however, sufficiently unusual that people will see the word and immediately think of the Potterverse, so best to avoid. (Cf.: ansible)

 

[Maxperson]

The Men Who Stare at Goats would fall along the lines of former example (ie; using "Jedi" as a reference), they aren't actually literal Jedi. If halfway through the film George Clooney is walking down a hallway and Ewan McGregor drops down from nowhere in a brown robe, says "Hello there", ignites a lightsaber, and force pushes Clooney down on his ass, I imagine that would have raised eyebrows over at Lucasfilm.

And while I enjoyed that movie, would have made it much better!

 

[Yaarel]

In Xanathars, the list of names, there were a number of ethnic languages, Arabic, Greek, Norse, etcetera. But Hebrew felt conspicuously absent. I was uncomfortable with that.

 

[billd91]

Fortunately, we (and by we I presumably include WotC) have the same ability to come up with new terminology bereft of religious connotation (come to think of it, should we be discussing golems as well?), as ancient Latin and Greek have no shortage prefixes and suffixes with which to mangle together new words.

It's kind of funny because that's almost certainly close to the etymology of the Greek word phylactery in the first place - some Greek scripture transcriber cobbling together a Greek term for a Jewish item.

 

[DammitVictor]

On the contrary:

"In December 2012, online retailer Amazon.com removed the e-book Spots the Space Marine by M.C.A. Hogarth at the request of games company Games Workshop. They claimed the use of the phrase "space marine" infringed on their trademark of the term for their game Warhammer 40,000. In February 2013, the row received a lot of publicity, with authors such as Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross and John Scalzi supporting Hogarth, and Amazon.com then restored the e-book for sale."

(emphasis mine)

Your evidence demonstrates my point; Games Workshop tried to claim "space marine" as their trademark, not as copyrighted material. Games Workshop thankfully bowed to public disapproval before testing their claim in court, so we unfortunately don't know for certain whether it would have succeeded or failed. I'm not confident enough in my "expertise" or my faith in either US or UK legal systems to assert that it would have failed, but a copyright claim absolutely would have.

 

[DammitVictor]

In Xanathars, the list of names, there were a number of ethnic languages, Arabic, Greek, Norse, etcetera. But Hebrew felt conspicuously absent. I was uncomfortable with that.

There are almost 7,000 natural human languages spoken on Earth. It's estimated that 3,000 of those will be extinct by 2100.

1% of 4,000 is 40. How many lists were there in Xanathar's?

Please don't take this as me trying to deny your discomfort... I'm trying to offer you a more comfortable perspective.

 

[Yaarel]

There are almost 7,000 natural human languages spoken on Earth. It's estimated that 3,000 of those will be extinct by 2100.

1% of 4,000 is 40. How many lists were there in Xanathar's?

Please don't take this as me trying to deny your discomfort... I'm trying to offer you a more comfortable perspective.

These ethnic languages mentioned by Xanathars are significant to English-speakers, many of them in personal names. The one that is missing is Hebrew. The missing language is especially conspicuous when Arabic and Egyptian are present.

And it isnt about population number. The number of Norse (Scandinavians and Icelanders) is in the same magnitude as the number of Hebrew (Israelis and Diaspora Jews).

And it isnt about religion, because the Greek and Latin of Christianity are present. And the Arabic of Islam.

Hebrew is missing.

 

[billd91]

These ethnic languages mentioned by Xanathars are significant to English-speakers, many of them in personal names. The one that is missing is Hebrew. The missing language is especially conspicuous when Arabic and Egyptian are present.

Inclusion of one group should not automatically be interpreted as a slight at another. That's just weaponizing identity.

Instead, think of why one might be included when the space for doing so is limited. There's a long history of using Egyptian tropes and mythology in D&D. That reasoning probably explains why Celtic, Norse, Mesoamerican, Greek, and Roman names are included as well. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Indian, Japanese, and Spanish are all massive linguistic groups that also have history in D&D. The real interesting inclusions are Niger-Congo, Polynesian, and Slavic - they're the real winners of WotC growing the identity tent. And they're good inclusions.

Hebrew - kind of an also-ran compared to others also left out. Where's the Tagalog? There's about 7x the number of speakers of Tagalog than Hebrew. How about Turkish? Korean? Vietnamese? Where's the line drawn?