First, since you can PI things that can be neither copyrighted nor trademarked, why would you use either of those things to determine who the owner of PI is?
Actually, you can't. Anything fixed in a tangible form is copyrigihted. Any name or phrase used by a contributor to identify themselves or their products is "trademarked" as far as the OGL cares.
Second, PI is NOT NOT NOT Intellectual Property. It is a term in a contract. Just because it is similar to other IP concepts is completely irrelevant. Since the contract does not state the PI works like copyright or trademarks, there is absolutely no reason to assume it does.
Third, the only time I care about the owner of PI is if I wish to license it in my product: "7. You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity."
Fourth (and this one is a lot more shaky than the above), since section 1f defines "trademark" even references to trademarks within the license MAY NOT refer to actual trademark law: "1 (f) "Trademark" means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor." Why define the term when it has a perfectly good legal meaning already unless you did not want to use the normal legal meaning?
FWIW...
PI are "hands off" bits; an "OGC-Veto." OGL-Trademarks are "usernames". If Joe PI's "Mindwalker", that doesn't stop Doug from including it in The Craft of the Mind. However, since Doug refers to his work as The Craft of the Mind, no other party to the OGL may use term "The Craft of the Mind" to indicate that they're compatible or co-adaptable with Doug's system. ('course, if Doug doesn't keep his eyes open and doesn't tell people who call THEIR OGL product "The Craft of the Mind" to pick a different name, he can lose his USA-trademark status--but even if he does that, he can still keep people from saying that they're compatible with HIS CotM by virute of the OGL.)
Back to getting that [EMAIL PROTECTED] project done for me. (And writing fiction. Must write fiction....)
DM
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