Article: Protection from Chaos Part VIII: Intellectual Property Primer

[Frylock]

You can view the page at http://www.loremaster.org/content.php/203-Protection-from-Chaos-Part-VIII-Intellectual-Property-Primer

[gaming tonic]

This was one of the most logical and well organized pieces I have read about this in awhile. I appreciate the simplicity of the article and all the valuable information it contains. I am sure the other users here at Loremaster will find it very useful as well. Thanks for this one I will be passing on the link to others who can use it as well.

[Frylock]

Well, lookey here. This story (http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=66405946-83f5-416b-a462-3e8e73333135) just came over the wire today. See if you understand it. If you don't, speak up, and I'll explain.

[Frylock]

Here's an interesting story about a C&D someone just received from WotC: http://rpg.brainclouds.net/2011/07/13/cease-and-desist/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed. Obviously, I haven't seen the product.

[Steelfiredragon]

Well, lookey here. This story (http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=66405946-83f5-416b-a462-3e8e73333135) just came over the wire today. See if you understand it. If you don't, speak up, and I'll explain.

explain please

[Frylock]

explain please

LOL. Okay, be lazy. :-)

I discussed how you can get "common law" trademark rights by default, so you need to do a real (i.e., expensive) search to see if anyone's using the mark before you file your trademark application with the USPTO. The creators of Pawn Stars apparently didn't do that. Now look at where they stand. There's a small company in Florida (the "pawn shop") that has common law rights to Pawn Stars in their geographical area (hard to say how large that area is without more information), and the producer of the TV Show (the "producer") can't use their federal mark to override the local rights of the pawn shop. The consequence to the TV show?

1. They can't sell their products and services under the name "Pawn Stars" in the pawn shop's geographical area. (Not much of an issue because they're a TV show.)
2. If the pawn shop starts make a fool of itself, it could make the TV show look bad. People might think they're a franchise of the pawn shop from the TV show, and any mistakes of the pawn store will trash the reputation of the producer.
3. Their solution will be to pay off the pawn shop (and any other potential owners of local rights), which could get expensive.

Before investing some much money in marketing themselves, they should have made sure they'd have rights throughout the country. It's hard to say how much this will hurt the show (or its wallet), but in other cases, this could be financially devastating.