> This is almost as troublesome as the option 3 I referred to. It means
> that a trademark could accidentally be declared as OGC, and thus reused
> by others.
Call me an arrogant fanboy, but...
AFAIK, Trademarks are usually so small and short that unless they're
totally unique (like "Drizzt Do'Urden"), copyright doesn't even bother with
them. Thus, for the most part it doesn't matter if the marks are OGC or
not; some spell names (for example) are so generic ("fire missle" from R&R)
that someone could very reasonably come up with them on their own, and a
trademark claiim would be rather weak unless they're registered.
PI declarations & Registered Trademarks* aside, I think that someone using
a so-called "trademark" to name OGC is labeling it, and could be construed
as granting you permission to use it to denote that OGC as-is.
Thus, to get back to a practical/theoretical example, if I release a list
of spells, and claim the spell names as trademarks (such as "Meerschaert's
Magical Mace" or some other rather unique name) but I don't mark them as
PI, someone could scrub the non-OGC / PI content from my spell list and
include them in their work, trademarks and all.
Unless someone were to use my trademarks to claim "compatability or
co-adaptability" without my permission, I don't think that I would be able
to successfully take them to court over it. It's clear that I intended the
marks to be used to name something, and by inserting them they're hardly
diluting the meaning I wanted to be attached to those marks.
Of course, like Ryan said, it's probably best not to use them unless you
can get seperate permission. It's a good practive to do something simliar
to what Clark & Necromancer games did; if you include trademarks to name
lootable items, it's best to include a license with them. Even if someone
could beat you in court over it, they're likely to give you the publicity
in exchange for suit-proof permission.
(*= If someone Registered a Trademark, I think that they'res a higher
standard needed for use, and I don't even want to speculate on that one.)
DM
P.S. For those who don't know, or if you happen to have forgotten somehow,
I am *not* one of the lawyers on this list. I haven't even finished a
bachelor's degree yet. If you feel compelled to take my advice without
consulting a lawyer, please don't. Or if you must, beat yourself over the
head with a 2x4 first--I think that might be safer.
P.P.S: If anyone's looking for a lawyer and not sure what they can afford,
the Free Gaming Assocation (http://www.thefga.com/) has made
contacts.
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