At 04:07 PM 5/3/01 -0400, Doug Meerschaert wrote:
>Unless you find a lawyer who says otherwise, I think it would be most wise
>to assume that *all* names of gaming books are trademarks, and treat them
>appropriately.
Regarding the notion of trademarked book titles, I came across something
interesting just this morning. Out of curiosity I bought "Trademark &
Copyright Book", a comic-book style guide to copyright and trademark basics
written by Michael Lovitz, a lawyer who lectures on the subject at
conventions, etc.
There on page 18, Lovitz states: "Although you cannot secure trademark
rights on the title of a single work, you can for the title of a series of
works."
If true, this is something I never realized before. Assuming that revisions
and updates of the same work do not constitute a "series", that would
explain why TSR and WotC never trademarked the titles of many of their
rulebooks. Since there was only one book entitled "Dungeon Master's Guide",
they could not have trademarked it. By my understanding, though, they
*could* have trademarked "Monster Manual", since there was a "Monster
Manual II", and they certainly could have trademarked "Monstrous
Compendium" -- and did.
So Sword & Sorcery could trademark the title "Creature Collection"
(assuming they can convince the Trademark Office it's not too generic a
title) based on the fact that a "Creature Collection II" is coming out.
Most of the time, however, the titles of game books cannot be trademarked,
although they can be virtually trademarked by including a trademarked word
within them ("The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer", for example). Such titles as
"Psionics Handbook", "Defenders of the Faith", "Sword & Fist" cannot be
trademarked. Unless of course you accept a license such as d20 in which you
voluntarily agree to treat those titles (PI but not trademarks) as if they
*were* trademarks, in exchange for the marketing benefits the license and
logo provide.
Interesting.
Andrew Crossett
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