> 1) Why is this taking so long?
There is no direct profit for the various business units at WotC in Open
Gaming, so none of the various parts of the company that have to authorize
or work on the project will prioritize it above the least important thing
they have to work on which does have a direct profit potential.
Compounding matters, WotC is engaged in substantially more litigation and
contract negotiation this year than it was last year, limiting the amount of
time the attorneys are willing to devote to the necessary debate and
discussion involved in drafting the various licenses.
Finally, extracting "the d20 System" from the core D&D books is taking
considerably longer than anyone expected (especially me).
> I don't understand why the OGF is still a private one-person group,
though.
Because I have prioritized my workload as well, and fiddling with the OGF is
at the bottom of my list of things to work on. It is the least important
part of the project, so it is getting the least amount of attention.
> 2) Why hasn't WOTC registered D20 System as a trademark with the U.S.
> Patent and Trademark Office?
The paperwork has been filed, the mark just hasn't shown up in the on-line
databases. I don't know the timing of the filing; it may have been as
recently as this month. WotC often registers marks after they've been used
in commerce instead of filing intent-to-use.
The test used by the PTO when reviewing a trademark application is whether
or not the mark is identifiable by a consumer in the marketplace as meaning
a specific good or service. Thus you get marks like "Quarter Pounder" and
"Let's get ready to rumble". Even if someone with standing (meaning a
publisher of commercial products in this market) chose to dispute the
registration of just the text "d20 System" on the grounds that they were
commercially marketing a product as a "d20 System" game and WotCs
registration was likely to create confusion, the logo itself would likely be
registered anyway because there's nothing else like it in the market.
Ryan
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