Stopping the LitRPG Trademark...

Pasting this here too, for giggles.

'''If I'm reading it right, it's in status 681 which can mean any number of items - so that part's kind of misleading.

The last text is "LAW OFFICE PUBLICATION REVIEW COMPLETED" - which only means they completed review and haven't posted a result.

The "LETTER OF PROTEST EVIDENCE REVIEWED-NO FURTHER ACTION TAKEN" likely means they looked at it but it didn't have a stance they could use to appeal the rest of the process. Typically these things have to be worded specifically and cite appeal codes.

However the part that authors in the genre need to care about is the "11/27/2017" action - "APPROVED FOR REGISTRATION SUPPLEMENTAL REGISTER" - and the effective date Paul found at the op of the second link.

FILING DATE 10/05/2016 REG DATE 01/09/2018

Good luck guys! GameLit foreva.'''

 

Even if he does get this ridiculous trademark, the genre's new enough to relabel itself around him - it's not even a category on Amazon yet.

I'm not a lawyer, so I dunno - what would he actually do? How many lawsuits would he have to file? And didn't the term originally come from Russia, wouldn't that mean he'd have to somehow sue people overseas? If he was trying to sue a publishing company using the term he might be able to do something, but instead he'd have to pursue a ton of self-publishers. Would that be cost-effective at all?

Such a silly thing to waste time on.

 

This is straight up bullshit man.
I'm thinking of just changing the LitRPG Rebels page to GameLit Rebels and cutting LitRPG from all my stuff.

 

Changing the URL and the logo isn't hard. Creating a temporary redirect because you'd still own the domain - isn't hard. You can keep all the people, move to a new location, and keep the traffic too.

I' not sure how long it would take to curate the forums if you don't have a database somewhere to find and replace - but it's still very doable.

 

I totally get what you're saying, but the fact is that my name's been dragged through the dirt a lot by various entities.
The last thing I need is for Captain Dildo to come raining on my parade and hitting me up with copyright infringement BS. People's stuff has been pulled from Zone for a lot less.

 

That's what I'm saying. Rather than even begin to flail about how much work is invested and how much of a [insert name here] whoever started this mess is - simply go around them sooner rather than later. The more people that "pull out" of LitRPG - the less power the trademark has. If enough people do it, then it's going to be even better.

Keep in mind that some [insert name here] out there brought every single author into the group they could find to bloat the size and their presence up. Pulling people out will do the same, in reverse. That being said, from a marketing standpoint, someone needed to do it. Staying with the name simply risks repercussions for riding the bandwagon.

 

I seriously doubt that's possible. It's why the lads and I set up that quiet 'it belongs to everyone' thing so early on.
There's simply too much stuff for anyone to copyright it, including the @Dustin Tigner website, my group, and the dozen or so other little pieces scattered around the net.
Aleron had the benefit here because he has dominance over the market.

 

If he does trademark it, I think he's gonna bleed followers. I assume he's going to try and get a cut of their earnings, and people aren't going to like that.

 

Wow. He's still at it?

Has he actually managed to trademark yet? Or is it just under review again?

 

So what can be done to protest/stop/file against this? Apparently there's some time to do that?

I admittedly don't know much about trademarking but it seems really unfair that he can copyright something he didn't even think up that is pretty widely used by a ton of people.