It has been listed under the following categories for statement of use:
Toys and Sporting Goods Products Dice games; Role playing games; Tabletop hobby battle games in the nature of battle, war and skirmish games, and fantasy games, and playing equipment sold as a unit therewith.Paper Goods and Printed Material Role playing game equipment in the nature of printed game book manuals
According to a press release from last year, the Estate of David Arneson LLC is Dave's Daughter Malia Arneson-Weinhagen, her husband Luke and their grandchildren. The same press release made it clear that Chris Graves, producer of the documentary "Secrets of Blackmoor", has been made
"Authorized Representative and Bridge Troll for the Estate of David Arneson, LLC". Note that Mr Graves' associate Griff Morgan who runs the Secrets of Blackmoor account on X/Twitter and elsewhere has made it clear that he is not a spokesperson for the Estate".
At this point, no official statement has been made from the Estate about what this confirmation of the Trademark Registration would mean for the future of Blackmoor.
-Havard
What about the “reversion clause” in the contract for copyright transfer of the “DUNGEONS & DRAGONS” Original 3 Brown Books as agreed upon and executed by the joint authors, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, back on April 7, 1975?
ReplyDeleteHere is the clause: “TSR also hereby agrees that the ownership of the copyright mentioned above shall revert to the Author(s) not more than 90 days after the set of game rules or game is no longer maintained in-print.
It seems that Dave Arneson's estate and Gary Gygax's estate should be able to claim joint copyright ownership of the Original D&D 3 little brown books because at some point in time TSR no longer maintained the game in-print. Has this question ever been answered to anyone's satisfaction?
Is it possible that, because of the “reversion clause”, TSR did not in fact own the rights before selling out to Wizards of the Coast? Is it possible that Wizards of the Coast, since it didn't maintain the original white box game “in-print”, could not have transferred the copyright to Hasbro because the reversion of copyright ownership had previously taken place?
If I'm wrong, please let me know. And please let me know specifically why I am wrong, not just say “that's crazy talk.” Lol.