Dungeons & Dragons Controversies - Licensing and Trademark Violations

Licensing and Trademark Violations

Early in the game's history, TSR summarily revoked the license to create AD&D-compatible items it had previously granted to the publishing company Judges Guild. TSR's action was a primary cause of the smaller publisher's decision to cease operations in the early 1980s.

Grimoire Games, which published David A. Hargrave's multi-volume Arduin series, had no such license. When presented with a cease and desist order regarding the use of TSR's trademarks, Grimoire was forced to rely on white-out and typing correction tape to mask its use of AD&D references in subsequent printings of the Arduin series.

TSR ran afoul of intellectual property law with respect to the Cthulhu Mythos and Melnibonéan Mythos, elements of which had been included in early versions of the Deities & Demigods manual. These problems were ultimately resolved by excising the material from later editions of the book. References in early TSR publications to certain creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien's mythical Middle-earth were also removed or altered due to intellectual property concerns. For example, TSR replaced all references to the race of Hobbits in D&D with their alternate name, Halflings—which was coined by Tolkien but judged by TSR to be non-infringing.

In 2009, Hasbro filed a lawsuit against Atari, claiming Atari had breached the Dungeons & Dragons licensing agreement when Atari sold its European distribution business to Namco Bandai Partners. Atari was accused of sublicensed part of its exclusive D&D rights to Namco Bandai Partners without authorization. Hasbro also alleged Namco Bandai had obtained Hasbro's confidential information about Dungeons & Dragons from Atari, and posed itself as Dungeons & Dragons publisher for digital games previously published by Atari. In addition, the plaintiff claimed Atari had sold at least 4 of its subsidiaries actively engaged in D&D licensed activities to Namco Bandai, yet Atari had denied any relationship between itself and Namco Bandai with respect to D&D. Atari claimed Hasbro tried to unfairly take back rights granted to Atari, and Atari has sought to resolve the matter without cooperation from Hasbro. On August 15, 2011, Wizards of the Coast LLC, Hasbro, Inc. and Atari, S.A. announced the settlement and resolution of the complaint against Atari, S.A. and the counterclaims filed by Atari, S.A. against Hasbro, Inc. filed in December 2009 in regards to the Dungeons & Dragons brand. As part of the settlement, digital licensing rights for Dungeons & Dragons were returned to Hasbro. Atari would continue to develop and market several games under license from Hasbro and Wizards, including Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale and Heroes of Neverwinter for Facebook. In addition, as a result of the sales of Cryptic Studio to Perfect World Entertainment Inc., the release date of the Neverwinter PC Game was delayed to late 2012.