Fables in Public Domain

 Fables, Bill Willingham's long running comic series, is now in the public domain. Willingham, the creator and owner of the series, has gotten so frustrated with DC and the way they have handled the series and his contracts with the company, that he has decided to put the entire intellectual property into public domain for you to make use as you will. Write stories using the characters, draw them, make video games featuring them, they are now your's.

Weis Lawsuit dismissed

 According to a post on her Facebook page, The lawsuit against WOTC by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman has been voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs, Weiss and Hickman. This likely means that the parties have come to some sort of agreement which we may or may not learn more about depending on if there is a NDA or not

I know some of you have seen that our lawsuit against WoTC was dismissed. I can't say anything yet, but watch for exciting news in the weeks to come!

Volunteers, Fans or Employees

This week's ICV2 column  this week looks at the lawsuits filed against WOTC by Magic judges, allegeing  that, due to the service they provide WOTC, they should be classified as employees rather than volunteers.

A Duo of Dueling D&D Documentaries

Did you know there were a couple of documentaries about D&D in the process of getting made? Me either?  The first one, Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary is produced by Iconoscope Films/Westpaw Films and funded through Kickstarter back in 2012. The company plans to release the finished film this year, coinciding with the 40^th anniversary of the original Dungeons & Dragons game. From the Kickstarter page for this film:

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, a game that is, simply put, a cultural phenomenon.

Whether you know it or not, you may be playing Dungeons & Dragons. Any computer game you play, any role-playing game you play, any online profile you fill out, have their elements and DNA rooted in Dungeons & Dragons. It's a game that has had far-lasting, powerful and yet subtle influence in our culture. 

From its humble beginnings in a basement in Lake Geneva, WI, D&D was created by a group of game enthusiasts and game designers. The story of D&D and its creation spans four decades and is a complicated, heart-breaking story. Imagine "The Social Network", the creation of Facebook, but no one ends up rich. This is a cautionary tale of an empire built by friends and lost through betrayal, enmity, poor management, hubris and litigation.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game beloved by its fans. A game that brings family and friends together, creates communities, societies and sub-cultures. D&D teaches. We have heard countless stories of gamers who have delved deeper, studying history, language, science and math purely for the desire to be better players. Gamers have created lifelong friendships because of this game and come in all walks of life; firefighters, educators, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, and yes, even a few documentary film-makers.

Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast. Here comes Fantasy Game Films with their documentary The Great Kingdom. Yep, you guess it, they have a Kickstarter too (but don’t plan to release until July 2015):

In 1969, GARY GYGAX, a family man and an insurance underwriter with an entrepreneurial mind meets DAVE ARNESON, an idle, yet brilliant game designer. Their collaboration would change the world, their families and themselves.
This is the remarkable true life story of the rise and fall of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and the people behind the creation of the epic role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.
THE GREAT KINGDOM explores the personalities behind the game and the families they engendered. This is the saga of the people who brought a company from its humble basement beginnings and transformed it to a multi-million dollar corporation. A story for our time that parallels the rise, fall and redemption of Steve Jobs and echoes the who-invented-what question of the creation of Facebook.
The story of families, both blood and personal bond, affected by the success of the game, a game that brought joy to millions and heartbreak to its creators. What happens to these individuals as they weather through the success; the excess, the betrayals, the downfalls and eventual redemptions, all takes place in THE GREAT KINGDOM.

It gets even better though, as it appears the makers of The Great Kingdom worked on D&D:  A Documentary before creative differences led to a parting of the ways. Again, from The Great Kingdom’s Kickstarter page:

Some of you may know James and myself from a different D&D documentary project that was started on Kickstarter a couple of years ago. As projects like this go and part of the nature of filmmaking, there were creative differences that led to our new direction and separation from the previous project.
We started from scratch, raising private funds and some of our own to get us to this point. We knew there was an amazing story to tell. And like any complicated story, there will always be room for different interpretations.
So, to those who helped support the previous documentary, we would like to offer a digital, downloadable copy of THE GREAT KINGDOM for FREE. It's our small way of thanking you for your support and patience. All you need to do is email us and there will be a copy waiting for you when the film is done. 

Westpaw, producers of the D&D: A Documentary film  is now suing Fantasy Game Films for:

usurping D&D Production opportunities through the actions of Pascal and Sprattley,
who were secretly competing with the D&D Production by planning and undertaking to produce
a different Dungeons & Dragons documentary referred to as “The Great Kingdom”

This will drag out the production of both for the forseeable future.

Meanwhile, if you want to watch a D&D documentary, PBS, surprisingly, has a pair of them.  Can Dungeons and Dragons Make You Confident and Successful? runs on PBS’ Idea Channel while you can find Dungeons & Dragons and the Influence of Tabletop RPGs can be found at PBS’ Off Book. You will be able to see these much  quickly than either of the competing D&D documentaries, I’d wager.

What WOTC Wants

Here, for those who haven't looked at the lawsuit itself, is the list of things WOTC wants as redress for the harm is claims to have suffered as a result of the development of the Hex: Shards of Fate trading card game:

1.For a permanent injunction enjoining Cryptozoic and all persons acting in concert with them from manufacturing, producing, distributing, adapting, displaying, advertising,  promoting, offering for sale and/or selling, or performing any materials that are substantially similar to Magic and to deliver to the Court for destruction or other reasonable disposition all materials and means for producing the same in Cryptozoic’s possession or control;  

2 For a permanent injunction, enjoining Cryptozoic and all persons acting in concert with them from using the trade dress of Magic in connection with any paper, electronic, or web- based trading card video game or from otherwise using Wizards’ trade dress, as embodied in either of the paper or electronic forms of Magic or any confusingly similar use thereof, in any way causing the likelihood of confusion, deception, or mistake as to the source, nature, or quality of Cryptozoic’s games and to deliver to the Court for destruction or other reasonable disposition all materials bearing the infringing trade dress in Cryptozoic’s possession or control; 

3.For any and all damages sustained by Wizards;

4.For all of Cryptozoic’s profits wrongfully derived from the infringement of Wizards’ intellectual property rights; 

5. For a Judgment against Cryptozoic declaring this case to be exceptional under the Patent Act and therefore subjecting Cryptozoic to liability to include treble damages as authorized under Section 285 of the Patent Act; 

6.For reasonable attorney’s fees; 

7.For costs of suit herein; and

 8.For other such relief as the Court deems proper

WOTC Sues Cryptozoic

WOTC announced a lawsuit this week against Cryptozoic and a related company, Hex Entertainment, alleging that Hex's new digital TCG violates several of WOTC's copyrights on Magic, especially those related to the digital version of Magic. In its complaint, WOTC cites similarities between the two games as laid out in this post on the Threshold:  The Hex Podcast website.

The Quiet Speculation website has a very good analysis of the lawsuit, pointing out that, among other things, WOTC is suing under copyright rather than patent law and is claiming violation of trade dress, something that can be hard to prove when both items are digital properties.

This is the second lawsuit WOTC has launched over a game property. The suit and countersuit against Sweetpea Entertainment is still winding its way through the legal system and has remained fairly quiet since last September.

Still More on Dueling D&D Movies

Last week, Sweetpea Entertainment, producer of both D&D movies, filed a motion for summary judgement, asking the court to toss out Hasbro's lawsuit on the grounds that Hasbro failed to provide written notice that it was revoking Sweetpea's rights to the D&D property with the opportunity to cure (Read the motion here).

Hasbro it also claiming copyright infringement, which Sweetpea argues is impossible since there is no property yet on which to infringe copyright.  Stay tuned.

TSR Games

ICV2 has some more information on the relaunch of TSR Games.  It appears the company recruited two of Gary Gygax's sons as principals in the company so they could use the Gygax name in conjunction with the relaunch of the company as the name E. Gary Gygax remains the property of the Gygax Estate, under control of his second wife Gail. 

Trademark law only allows you to use a name controlled by someone else as a business trademark if it is your own original name.  Ergo, it would be very difficult to name a restaurant McDonalds and have it hold up in court legally, unless your name was McDonalds to begin with.  You are always allowed you to use your given name as a business name without fear of trade or service mark infringement.  Once you call it something else though, you open yourself to legal repercussions, such as the years of lawsuits between Apple Computer and the Beatles' Apple Studios.