JanessaVR Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I just heard that some company trademarked this late last year / early this year. Does that mean Chaosium can't publish any more books featuring Miskatonic University? That would be terrible. Does anyone know anything about this? I'm hoping this isn't an issue for CoC, but it does have me worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dce Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 It is highly unlikely that anybody could trademark the term "Miskatonic University" in its totality. For starters that's not how Trademarks work. It might be the case that someone has made a "Miskatonic University" branded thing -- say a brand of beer. If they successfully managed to trademark their logo/name then all that would mean is nobody else can make a beer or similar beverage with that branding. You could still make any other kind of thing with the same name -- unless that was obviously referencing the original logo in some way (like making clothing using the exact logo of the beer, using the exact fonts etc). As a reference, check out the long legal battle that eventually decided that Apple computers had no rights to force Apple Studios (of Beatles fame) to give up their name. So -- the only time this could ever cause a problem for Chaosium is if somehow someone had trademarked a line of books with the name, and given the fact that the original stories that mention MU are all now in the public domain (in the US at least) that would be pretty hard to do. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer ... but I have talked with lots of lawyers about Intellectual Property stuff over the years, and this is how I understand things to work. Dean (from Adelaide) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanessaVR Posted April 4, 2017 Author Share Posted April 4, 2017 That jibes with what the attorney I just hired to investigate this issue says. Good news! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vile Traveller Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) Check out how many people attended Miskatonic University of Facebook. Edited April 4, 2017 by Vile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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