Stopping the LitRPG Trademark...

More than that, it means that genres - (such as LitRPG/GameLit) which no self respecting publisher would touch with a five yard pole, sterile gloves, and a HazMat suit - get their rightful moment in the limelight

 

Are you certain it is time to submit it? I thought the tm was due to go live on January 9, after which there is a 30 day window to file TEAS-LOP

 

Oh well... there's no cost associated with it... so both before and after is good...

 

So... gang? Remember how a few people were saying 'Don't worry, it won't go through'?
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn87193675&docId=ORC20171224045446#docIndex=0&page=1

 

Well, this is a new turn. I'm a little curious as to what will happen next. Has he said anything about the approval?

 

Isn't trademark basically a copyright for images? In that case, he is trademarking the font used and the likeness, not the word. Unless he gets the word copyrighted. Amy I wrong on this or what? Please explain.

 

He made no claim to a specific size, color or font. He's trademarking the word, not a particular image.

 

I don't claim to be an expert in interpreting trademark laws as I'm not a lawyer, but I would like to share these resources that I was able to gather through the internet to help wash out hearsays and misinformed opinion regarding the trademark Aleron applied for and what the community's next best move should be in order to prevent the worst from actually happening.

Aleron's application was demoted from Principal trademark to supplemental. So I went on to find lawyer explanations on what a supplemental trademark is. Below are the most comprehensive and well thought out summary of what it is in simple definition, what it can and cannot do, and the ramifications of the existing supplemental trademark in the near future.





Watching the videos above, is enough to give you a clear idea of what the LitRPG supplementary trademark really is. But if by some reason, you can't watch the video, then here is a summary of terms from what the lawyers from the video have just explained.

Two types of registers:
1.Pincipal Trademark
2. Supplementary Trademark

Principal Register vs. Supplemental Register​

Principal Register

• is registered for the most unique trademarks
• basically says that once you have a registration on the Principal, you are the presumed owner of that trademark in all 50 states.
• So you as the owner of the Principal trademark will have the full backing of the court and everyone that has disputed on the use of the trademark will have the full responsibility and rebut the presumption of you being the owner of the trademark
• If you have this, you're in really GOOD SHAPE. You are the trademark's FATHER.
• How to get a principal register: trademarked (word) must be either unique as in a made up word (like Kodak or Nike) or it can be a word that's very common in the English language that is completely uncannily related to your product(Apple for computers)

Supplemental Register (This is the trademark of concern)

• it is bad(in the words of the male lawyer)
• most end up in the supplemental register because what they trademarked are considered "merely descriptive" (example words are super nutrition or sweet lollipops)
• as opposed to the principal, the supplemental register doesn't give presumption of federal ownership
• If again a scenario of dispute ends up in court, the supplemental trademark owner would have to prove that the trademark being fought for, when customers purchase or consume your product, that without thinking twice they immediately associate that trademark with you which sounds like: Customer says, " LitRPG? You mean The Land Books?". (I googled for a better descriptor and distinctiveness, secondary meaning come as key terms)
• benefits of a supplemental registration is that you get to embed your trademark with a circled R. Meh.
• The government will deny a trademark identical or similar to the one trademarked first by the supplemental trademark owner.
• it's a deterrent for people to potentially attempt trademarking the term themselves.

Preventing the Worst: Acquired Distinctiveness


Acquired distinctiveness

• is one primary way to crawl back from supplemental register to principal register(presumed trademark ownership)

Ways to obtain Acquired Distinctivess:
1. By using the trademark for 5 years or more. It isn't explained in the video, but the 5 year rule also requires that the trademark is substantially exclusive to the supplemental register owner.

2. If the supplemental register owner can prove secondary meaning. By virtue of secondary meaning, the product, service or word trademarked must be in the mind and total sense of any customer of that product, service or trademark immediately associated to you.

Sample case: Holiday Inn
The case with holiday inn is that they fall into the supplemental register because of the words holiday and inn being merely descriptive. But they were eventually able to register it to principal because based on the calculated data of their customers, holiday inn immediately relates with the major hotel that is Holiday Inn.


After knowing all of this, it should definitely be obvious what the next plan of action should be to totally bar Aleron's supplemental trademark from actually proceeding into principal trademark. By not letting him obtain acquired distinctiveness. To prevent him from doing that, we counter scenarios that lead to him acquiring substantially exclusive use of LitRPG and not make LitRPG become synonymous or have secondary meaning to Aleron or to his book series.

In itemized form, these actions are encouraged:
1. Egg on more authors to write and put LitRPG into their book covers and promote their books as LitRPG no more no less.

2. Do not back down. Moving to other suggested genres will give him more legroom to raise his case. The more number of people holding resistance, the more the genre becomes safe and free for everyone's use.

2.1 If you think moving to other genres will serve a better purpose for your books. Then let google tell you the truth. Graph below clearly dates from January 1 to January 29.

Google ain't lyin'. In the past 30 days, LitRPG has garnered 29 search stats while the proposed new catchy terms basically have zero. I mean, nobody would just randomly type those words marked with red and yellow dot. It didn't have the years of existence that LitRPG had which is more than half a decade.



2.2 Even if LitRPG gets fled away from by western authors, it will still be the biggest name in game-derived fiction because Russians and the nearby regions is where it gets the most traffic. A name change wouldn't work because it is totally forced, and you have to learn Russian to convince the biggest demographic of the fanbase to transition from LitRPG to some other offshoot term.





3. Promote other channels, pages and groups where people can buy books instead of staying in the LitRPG Facebook Group(Aleron's group in a nutshell).
These are some of the groups that I've found that promote LitRPG: LitRPG Books, LitRPG Rebels, LitRPG Adventures: Reviews & Discussions, greatlitrpg.com, litrpgforum.com, and litrpgreads.com.

4. Do not bring your fans to the LitRPG facebook group(the one owned by Aleron). Use the other channels above, or your own authorsite or your amazon author page. If you do so, you'll just have them baited to his Aleronized merchandize and marketing-boosted freebies. The worst and dumbest way to give him substantially exclusive status.

If you are concerned of the readers who might miss out on reading your book so you post your books in his group(LitRPG), then you should be more concerned when the time comes when he makes his move and attempts to upgrade his register to principal.



That's all I gotta say. Basically all of what I stated above is factual and proactive. If this gets shared and distributed for other people to see, then that would be better.

 

Thank you for summing up what ive been trying to say for a while now trademarks are based on recognition of exclusivity so the less we give him the more we get

 

That's an excellent summation. I think I'll go make some LitRPG t-shirts or something now!

 

Lol! Go ahead. Let's flood the market asap.

It's either a double loss(back to zero with an unknown brand and giving him power over what should've been defended) or a double win(claim it as a free brand, and even make money thru merchandise).

 

Yup. I just hate the fact that those that're setting up a new trend are becoming Aleron's indirect accomplices.

Everything should be based on facts. Internet is as good as you use it and that's how I use Google and YouTube nowadays. People fear dying on reading legal pdfs full of cryptic legalese when a lawyer in YouTube can simply explain it to them in simple and knowledge-based detail.

So to those that're panicking simply to panick. Don't let others decide what's the next step for you to do.You might even cause more harm than good by acting thru the reflex of fear mongering and misinformation.

 

Aaaaaand, I got the email! Go figure I'd step into a controversy simply by wanting to write a negative review of an audible book series! Anyways, thanks for the contact. I'll totally admit I was unaware of the genre prior to my review, but it makes total sense that it exists and has a thriving, vocal community, and some controversy to boot (I myself come from a PBeM RPG background)! If you've read my review, you'll know that I don't hold much love for the specific series, and it would be no skin off my nose to add a footnote that points out the issues surrounding the coining of the term LitRPG. So, I'm listening!