Why did she say SHE overthinks everything? Is she now wondering if I myself overthink everything? I mean, I do. But do I want that to get out? Also... !!! haha
You guys are amazing. I had no idea this was happening. I'm a law graduate but not in North America, and it always surprises me how copyright/trademark law there allows for some absurd things. So I can use the term #GameFantasy and later on try to"protect" it. No matter if you use GameLit or LitRPG, they are genres, seem silly to be able to claim it as someone's own, it would never happen to something like "Urban Fantasy". Now, I can see it being protected as a brand, for example, if I had a book literally named "LitRPG". Actually, this reminds me of what happened to "No Man's Sky": Sky (which provides satellite television and broadband services in Europe) sued them to change the name! Because it contained SKY. They own the friggin Sky... It wasn't even the word alone. So, yes, this issue is definitely serious. And I also agree with using LitRPG as much as possible. If it is recognized as a genre it should make things harder for anyone to copyright it (for me, it should be impossible to anyway). Also, is there some sort of National Writer's Association or organization with some power to make some noise about this issue? They can't be okay with someone trying to trademark a genre. Imagine if someone would go around trademarking any new genre that is starting to appear (like bitpunk).
My understanding of the law is that trademarking a clearly generic term like "LitRPG" is supposed to be denied, however there is no legal penalty for trying to trademark something and getting rejected, which means there's not much incentive not to go for it provided the person making the attempt has no morals. On top of this, the people in charge of deciding what does and doesn't get trademarked aren't generally familiar with niche genre fiction and can plausibly be fast-talked into granting the trademark for no better reason than the form having been filled out properly and not caring enough about Amazon self-publishers one way or another to take the time to read any challenges.
^^ Yep, a supplementary trademark is pretty useless in most cases. However, if after 5 years Aleron becomes solely associated with LitRPG he will gain a primary trademark.
And this is why I will argue against anyone who says we should stop using LitRPG "just in case". I'm not handing him a trademark he has no business owning.
For me, it just sounded like too much to say if I added it. It's a tag, but not a piece of the cover.
