The US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has rejected an appeal from Matt Coville’s MCDM and will not let the publisher register “Strongholds & Followers”.
Why? The board ruled that the name applies to a single work, not a series and that a single work cannot be trademarked.
MCDM had attempted to register Strongholds & Followers as “Role playing game equipment in the nature of game book manuals,” and the Board, therefore, said they would not treat it as a series, but as a single work.
A PDF copy of the appeal ruling shows original “Strongholds & Followers” manuals, including covers from The Sailor Moon ROle-Playing Game and Resource Book and RIFTS Adventure Guide and even looks at MCDM’s own website to see whether Strongholds & Followers was sold as a series or a one-off. While the manual is available in both print and PDF, the board said this did not stop it from being a single work.
Strongholds & Followers was an incredible Kickstarter success with nearly 29,000 backers and over $2m in pledges. It was a record at the time. Kickstarter also refers to the project as “a book” and that too was cited by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
It’s clear that MCDM tried their best here, no suggestion that Kickstarter money was used for a legal fight and the implications are interesting for publishers. Should every project be presented as a series to keep trademarks possible in the future? If so, what turns a book into a series?
Kickstarter books don’t always have straightforward retail follow-ups either. Hardcover copies of Strongholds & Followers are, for example, on eBay for nearly £70 while new copies of closer to $100 on Noble Knight Games.
Quick Links
- Appeal ruling PDF copy
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