"Ryan S. Dancey" wrote:
>
> This is another "carrot and stick" clause. The idea behind this clause is
> to stop someone from just putting "this product is compatible with the D20
> System. The D20 System is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast and is not
> used with permission." on their Open Gaming products without conforming to
> the D20 System license; or worse, using someone's game brand name (clearly
> for me, the worst case would be to have someone use D&D). The legal issues
> here are so murky that nobody wants to even render an opinion on how
> effective a suit might be if one were brought to stop this kind of use.
Given that Burger King can say "Our Whopper TM is 25% yummier than the
Big Mac TM", and that Coke TM and Pepsi TM both mention each other by
name in their commercials, I find it hard to imagine that "This game is
compatible with" (Or better than, or has more monsters than, or is even
more sophisticated than) "Dungeons&Dragons TM" could be illegal. They
WOULD have to say 'trademark not used by permission' and obviously could
not use the D20 logos, but I don't think there's a way to keep the words
'dungeons and dragons' off a box if there's no chance of consumer
confusion and the words are used in comparative sense.
OK, wait, I reread that. If they wish to use Open Game Content
(copyrighted material released for use under the OGL), then they DO have
to surrender some rights as part of the terms of their acceptance of the
contract. Ne'er mind.
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
