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Anyone been following Palladium Vs Trion?
endersshadow
Member Posts: 296
in Rift
So it looks like Trion completely ripped off Palladium. And not so much in title but in content.
Another article, if your interested, http://www.livingdice.com/4490/trion-worlds-responds-to-the-palladium-books-rift-lawsuit-comes-out-swinging/comment-page-1/#comment-4922
Personally, it bothers me somewhat, but eh, business is business...even if its a bit shady. If the game is good, I'll still play.
I am hoping that Trion Settles and this is the last we hear of it.
Comments
Expand on your accusation of them 'ripping off content' from the Rift tabletop RPG? I see nothing here to support that.
My stance on this is that Kevin Siembieda has a history of being over litigious and uses these kinds of actions as publicity drives that invaribly bring more traffic and business to his site then the use of the of the common use word 'rift' by another company will ever cost him.
Sembieda should be thanking Trion for this, not attacking them. Any confusion that might result from the use of the word (something I find surpising in a hobby market full of games using VERY similar words in their titles, such as 'dungeon', 'dragon', 'quest', and others) can only benefit Palladium.
If Palladium can sue Trion for this successfully then WotC can justifiably sue every RPG using the word 'Dragon' in it's title since it's trade marking of the word as a key part of their own product's title. It's that ridiculous as a claim.
Dragon Age: Origin is, for example, more of a direct rip off of Dungeons & Dragons, in title, content, and spirit, then R:PoT will ever be of Rift, yet no one says jack about that. Mainly because WotC don't base their entire self promotion strategy on these kinds of pathetic assertions I would guess.
As a last note, Palladium games are just frikin awful. Badly written and badly designed and aimed at 13 year old boys who know no better. It seems the only time the company makes news these days is when they are attempting to sue someone for some use of a common word they seem to think they own. 'Has beens'? For sure. As for 'actively' attempting to develop a Rift MMO.. Yeah, right... They can only just raise the capitol to keep publishing their poor poor books as far as I can see, let alone something like that. It's just another desperate fantasist pipe dream from Palladium.
I am neither a fanboy of one or the other (though attention is on Rift/Trion). Trion has a solid case.
Palladium can do what they want, since there is grounds here, but they won't win.
That was quite a bit of popcorn drama. I have to say they have a point on some of it.
PnP games have faded and Palladium games have (in my opnion) always been kind of meh. I really dont see how Palladium has much of a case beside both having the words Rifts in the title.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Personal feelings about one company or the other are irrelevant in terms of likelyhood of legal success for either party. I find it disturbing that people here are hopeing for the downfall of a company over a lawsuit, not because of legal standing or who is in the right, but instead on popularity. Popularity is fleeting in most cases and eventually without legal protections, we may all be "voted off the island" at some point if we use popularity as our standard for right vs. wrong.
Having reviewed the details of the case fileings that have been made public, It seems PB has a strong case. It does seem likley that the charges against Trion are undeniable and even admitted in there own filings. Seems that Trion's only chance at success is through throwing money at lawyers and keeping this matter in court till PB has exhausted there own legal funds. So far there strategy is baring fruit as the next time they will be in court will not be till some time into the next year.
If Trion wins this case one way or the other, it will be a huge can of worms that will possibly affect alot of other IP's as well. You can look forward to seeing many of your own favorite IP's being co-opted by other companies/individuals who may not be as kind to the concepts you have enjoyed up to this point. And it may not stop at just IP's. This case may also serve to legitimize other current violations since law is established by citing case law as being precedent. If Trion wins there case, this would in fact set a new and contradictory precedent for future cases. It is for this reason that i find it difficult to believe any court will rule against PB claim of infringement. And for all of our sakes i hope they wont. If anyone can co-opt anything someone else creates for there own profit, then it will keep alot of good ideas we may all enjoy from ever seeing the light of day for fear of being taken advantage of with no legal recourse.
Last i read, the case was thrown out.
Artorus Giltanus - Ranger EQ1 Retired
Arturien - 90 Deathknight WoW
Nope. Now some trition suporters an people who dont like palladium have been posting misinformation .But um as pointed out here..
http://www.livingdice.com/5124/trion-worlds-v-palladium-books-trial-date-set/
The case goes before a jury on February 28, 2011 with a estimated length of 5-10 days. That said, mediation between the parties was on the table, so the court date is really meaningless if mediation produces a settlement
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
Same could be said of your expert opion on what 13 year olds would like in rpgs?Till i see some legal or offical training from you on such if its ok with you ill hold judgment on your ability to judge rpgs by age as well as if they are "awful".
By the way i own the modual your avatar is from.Cant recall its name atm .Thinking white plume mountian back cover.
An as far as that hes sue crazy coment um not to my knowledge now people have had the nightspawn night bane thing backwards for a bit."
Nightbane is a dark fantasy role-playing game and setting created by C.J. Carella and published in 1995 by Palladium Books. The game uses Palladium's megaversal system, which is also used by the multi-genre game Rifts and the horror game Beyond the Supernatural, among other games.
Originally published under the title, Nightspawn, the game's name was changed after legal threats from the lawyers of Todd McFarlane, creator of the Spawn comic book.[1] from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightbane
See McFarlane threatned to them over the use of spawn in Nightspawn name so they changed it to Nightbane.Funny how Triton changed name of their mmo once already .Another reson this is a problem is because Palladium has been in talks for aRIFTS mmorpg for a while now with difrent devlopers.As well as the Triton mmo on these boards geting called Rift(s) it will an has lead to confusion.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
I read in another thread that palladium trademarked the name Rift specifically for use as a computer game a long time ago. If true then I dont see how they wouldnt have a case.
I would have to agree, if Palladium trademarked Rift ... it looks difficult. Mis information the king of all confusion ...
Looks like Trion will be paying Palladium to use the word Rifts even though Palladium trademarked RIFT this is funny.
Artorus Giltanus - Ranger EQ1 Retired
Arturien - 90 Deathknight WoW
Your right. There is absolutely nothing anywhere in this post that would suggest favoritism of one company over another in a case where the stakes are clearly high for both. /sarcasm (in case you needed that spelled out for you as well).
The comments below that link I mentioned are interesting, some very insightful.
One in particularl I liked,
“A devastating magical eruption has tattered the veil between Telara and other planar dimensions. Perilous rifts occur when two planes intersect, allowing passage between different dimensions.
Rift: Planes of Telara™ is a fantasy MMO role-playing game set in a dynamic world being torn apart by powerful rifts from other planes. No part of Telara is truly safe, as rifts between the planes unleash sudden invasions without notice.”
So they havent ripped it off?
I also find it telling that Trion doesnt even try to say there game is different. If someone claims you stole the idea, the first thing I would show is how its different.
What I dont understand, is why in the beginning they just didnt go to Paladium and offer them money. The only reason I can fathom them not doing so is because they thought it would it would be less money to go to court.
weird.. double post due to mmorpg.com error
Yes, I am right, at no point did I wish for the 'downfall' (your melodramatic word) of Palladium books.
My dislike of the ruleset and the way Palladium have done business in the past has nothing to do with my view on this matter. My post is obviously in two parts and I fully detailed why I saw this situation the way I do, irrespective of my other feelings.
In case you needed it spelled out.
Its called cause and effect. Its quite simple really. If PB loses this lawsuit, they may have little choice than to close there doors as there wouldnt be any way from that point on to maintain any creative control over there IP. And little guarentee that they would be able to continue to profit enough to maintain the company. There movie option would be closed as well, since Jerry Brockheimer would no longer have to keep them in the loop and paying for the option of making a Rifts movie when he could just make it anyway and change anything he wanted reguardless of whether it was anything similar to original Rifts or not. With more mainstream exposure of his Rifts movie, he would then be free to create an entirely new Rifts line of products ripping off Rifts at every turn and with PB shut out from there own IP and recieving no benefit from its creation from that point foward, it would be unable to sustain itself as a company.
Other small companies will see this for the threat it is and may choose to pack it in as well since they have no legal protections on any innovation of concept they produce, and only large corporations with money will put anything into the mainstream from that point onward which will lead to homogenization of IP's lead entirely by marketing research, rather than imagination and vision.
Replying to comments in red, how was what I said misleading? Did I link to porn and tell you it was hello kitty?
I am really having a WTF moment right now. Are you arguing semantics? What do you think the lawsuit is about?
Once a name has been trademarked for a specific use it is protected. It doent matter if it is a word in common usage. If the trademark was granted and recorded thats pretty much the end of the story.
Good thing the game is named RIFT and not Rifts.
Doesnt make any difference. Think you could market a soft drink called Cokes?
Actually if you trademark rifts and someone uses the word rift you have no action against them letter of the law. You did not trademark rift you trademarked rifts. One more thing you cannot trademark common words. All of you internet lawyers need to wake up and call a real one before you speak. One more thing why is this a topic its stupid and who cares ?
Coke is not a common word like Rift is.
So are you claiming that the government did NOT issue them a trademark on the name Rift? I dont have actual proof that they did, but I think it highly unlikely that they would have filed a claim that they have a trademark if none was ever issued.