Reply To: HEROQUEST – Hasbro / Ludofilia GameZone

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 1]

If Hasbro had ANY case whatsoever, they wouldn’t have made a deal with Gamezone, they would have simply used the trademark and forced Gamezone to initiate the lawsuit knowing that Gamezone would be unlikely to be able to really pursue them. In terms of being upfront about Trademark usage – no crowdfunding campaign that I have ever backed has made any statement about whether they have rights to use their trademarks. Gamezone did not have a right to use it in the USA – Hence the campaign was removed from Kickstarter. They did have a right to use it in Spain and possibly other parts of Europe.

But here’s the opening statement from their crowdfunding campaign:
 
We present to you a new tribute game to the memorable HEROQUEST board game on the occasion of its 25th anniversary
 
That’s the first thing they say, before they say ANYTHING else at all – it’s a tribute. Even on their original Kickstarter campaign they were clear about who they were and why they were doing it. People wanted to see Heroquest, GW and Hasbro seemed uninterested in remaking it and so they were bringing it back themselves. This is not any different to what Restoration Games do all the time (in fact they took out a trademark on a Heroquest trademark before Hasbro announced they were rereleasing it)

So they were up front about everything they needed to be upfront about.