Re: [HoE] Re: Copyright

[DarrinBrig@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/19/99 5:34:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
copernicus@brunnet.net writes:

> Hm. Evidently some names can be copywritten. When FRPG started putting out
>  the Doomtown card game, they wouldn't use the term Pinkerton, as it was a
>  copywritten (or was it trademarked?) term and they didn't want to risk
>  getting sued. Note the lack of the term Pinkerton in HOE (though, 'the
>  Agency' is mentioned).

Trademarks and Copyrights are a little different.  Copyright can only apply 
to a body of work, usually written, but not necessarily limited to just text. 
 Trademark means a name has been established in a market to refer to a 
particular product.  If another company introduces a similar product with a 
similar name, or uses the trademarked name to portray the company in a 
negative light, then the company with the trademark can sue for damages.

In the Doomtown game, the name "Pinkerton" refers to a detective agency. 
There actually is a Pinkerton Detective/Security agency still around, and use 
of this name could open up FRPG to a possible lawsuit if the Pinkertons 
didn't like how they were being portrayed in the game.  They could also try 
to say that their name/reputation was being used to promote a product, and 
ask for compensation.

This is not the same as copyright, however. Trademarks protect a company's 
product in an established market and prevent "confusion" between two products 
that may have the same or similar names.  As has already been discussed, many 
companies are protective of their trademarks, because if you don't actively 
protect them, they run the risk of the term coming into "common usage" and 
they lose all rights to it.  Aspirin used to be the name of a product, but 
has now become so common that any company can use it.  In Europe the same 
product is usually referred to as an "analgeisic" if I remember correctly... 
or "pain killer" gets the job done as well.

In the RPG business, or comic business... protecting a trademark can be 
important if you want to introduce a product into the market at some later 
date. If Todd McFairlaine ever gets around to licensing a RPG for his Spawn 
character, he's probably going to want to be damned sure no other RPGs out 
there are already called "Spawn".  Same thing with Aeon.  So try not to be 
too harsh on a company for protecting a trademark... if they don't defend it, 
all sorts of nasty things can happen.