Damian Smart wrote:
> Sure it is. If you don't mention the company's trademark, that company
> won't sure you. Trademark lawsuits, by their very nature, aren't
> frivolous. A company is forced to sue on the side of caution, they must
> actively guard their trademarks or risk losing them.
>
However, the idea that you cannot mention trademarks in the body text of
a product, especially in a factual or comparative sense, is ludicrous.
Examples, as noted, include the works of William Gibson. In non-fiction
contexts, consider "Consumer Reports", which not only lists trademarks
but often says derogatory things about them.
I think WOTC caved waaaaay too easily on the 'Dark Matter' issue.
There's too many counter-examples, even within the narrow field of
gaming supplements. "Guides To Guns", in game-rule terms, have been
around since the 1980s and none has ever been shut down by a lawsuit. Of
course, since WOTC lives and dies by IP, it would not want to set a
precedent which could then be used against it. A lot of companies will
settle rather than 'lose by winning'. (In the early 90s, Borland was
being sued by Lotus over Quattro. At the same time, Ashton-Tate was
suing Fox over the XBase language. Borland brought Ashton-Tate and
dropped their lawsuit, in part because winning it would have been a
powerful precedent for Lotus.)
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