>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>Yup. (both "d20 System" and "D&D" are Trademarks. The Editor can't use
>>them without a separate agreement.)
>
>This contradicts several long standing items, however, such as the First
>Amendment, Fair Use provisions of IP law and a fairly recent court ruling
>which allows the use of a trademark as long as it does not exceed the
>"amount" of the trademark necessary to identify the mark.
>
>Is it your assertion that those who publish OGC in accordance with the OGL
>waive federally recognized allowable uses of marks?
The OGL provides contractual restrictions on the fair use of trademarks over
and above federal trademark law. This is a longstanding issue of concern
for some of us but is a concession that those who accept the OGL MUST MAKE
to be allowed access to the D&D D20 "open game content" for development
purposes.
A hypothetical alternative is to reverse engineer the "pure rules" of the
D&D 3E system and create your own similar game. Something that is legally
possible but for which there would be no legal "safe harbor". This was done
with 1E rules in the 1980s by "Palladium". It never really sold that well.
Faust
See the OGL FAQ at:
http://www.earth1066.com/D20FAQ.htm
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