Public Domain (split)

[Shane]

Wow, I am confused.  How does something that is in the public domain qualify as something you can trademark anyhow?

I am a longtime rpg and wargame player that only recently became adept enough to want to make my own modifications and share them with anyone, and now it seems everywhere I turn there are these really bizarre landmines set up to destroy anyones ability to do any of that on any meaningful level.

How do you trademark a word that does not refer back to a product you have, or use a word that clearly does not belong to you as a trademark?

Perhaps a better question would be what organizations do I need to start supporting to change the laws, because this is just becoming rediculous imho.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

The above post was split from the four-year-old thread Public domain.

Shane, please keep in mind that the Forge has unusual standards for posting to threads. You're always welcome to start new ones which link back to old ones (as I did in this corrected version), but please don't post to older threads.

As far as the topic itself is concerned, the discussion may continue here, but bear in mind that the only real answer you can get is "talk to a lawyer," and that a lot of people tend to post uncritically whenever issues like copyright, trademarks, public domain, and so on come up. It may be that the post you're replying to is just empty gas - in which case, it's best ignored.

If you're concerned about a particular trademark issue, relevant to your own publishing plans, please let us know. The fact is that many, many of us have published many, many games, so there is no way that you could be roadblocked from publishing in the way that you describe in your post.

Best, Ron