From: "woodelf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> At 15:08 -0500 2/4/04, Benjamin Durbin wrote: > >WOTC's ability to trademark the term "d20" is enhanced every time a 3rd > >party publisher claims "d20-compatibility." > > > >Such claims are obviously intended to trade upon the goodwill of the "d20 > >System" trademark. > > Yep. Which is why i always refer to the "D20 System", when discussing > the stuff in the D20SRD and/or D&D3E books, never "D20". > > Though, on the flipside, i think you can also use "D20" specifically > to challenge the validity of the "D20 System" trademark, since, it > seems to me, if there is that much risk of confusion with an > established, mundane [in the RPG world] term, then perhaps "D20 > System" is insufficiently unique to merit trademark status. And, for > that matter, just because "Budget Host" is trademarkable doesn't mean > that either "budget" or "host" is, even in the realm of hotels. Wizards can not make "d20" PI without crippling OGL based roleplaying products. If d20 CAN be PI, then you can not reproduce the term. So you could not have any instruction to roll a d20 in your rules. d20 (and the names of all other types of die) MUST be Open Game Content in order for the game to work. I agree with woodelf on d20 also not being a trademark as it was used before Wizards bought D&D. However, surely publishers that use the d20stl are all helping to support Wizards case for ownership of the phrase "d20 System". To comply with that licence they all print the "d20 System" logo (which has a TM declaration). They also print a legal notice in their book stating that "d20 System" and the "d20 System" logo are the property of Wizards. Surely everyone who has complied with the d20stl has given away any claim they might make for use of the phrase. If my guess is right only people who have never used the logo can print d20 System on their products (without qualification or logo). David Shepheard _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
