Long-running WoW and
Everquest guild "The Syndicate®" has trademarked its name in the realm of online gaming -- so if
you're part of a guild called "The Syndicate" on any server except Zul'jin, you're in trouble. Raph Koster has some commentary on this, wondering what the implications of not using
the word "syndicate" in any guild name might be.Crucially, it appears that the trademark includes "The" as well as "Syndicate", but it's still an extremely generic term for a guild. Having said that, I've never seen any Syndicates running around, so perhaps people prefer names like "Cult of the Dark Chicken" (a guild I belong to) instead.
[Thanks, m3mnoch]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-06-2006 @ 12:13AM
Silvertusk said...
Y'know, there's a group of NPCs in World of Warcraft called "The Syndicates" ...
But, yeah. I think it's stupid to trademark a "guild name". If they even tried to harass another guild that just-so-happened to use the word "Syndicate" in their guild name, Blizzard could very likely step in and do something about it - possibly in the untrademarked guild's favour.
My two cents.
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2-06-2006 @ 12:27AM
PhrozenGhost said...
I think it's against the EulA to do this....
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2-06-2006 @ 1:17AM
Larry Farnsworth said...
Yes there is a npc group in the game of WoW called "The Syndicate"
But what you might not realize is that it was named after the real life guild called "The Syndicate" as a thank you to them for mass beta testing the game and giving Blizzard a ton of mass feedback on it.
Something to think about before you jump to conclusions.
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2-06-2006 @ 3:22AM
Derek Tablak said...
Got any proof to that Larry? Sounds like you are a member of that guild trying to justify the stupidity of it in my opinion..
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2-06-2006 @ 5:06PM
Harpo said...
I think the Syndicate©®™ also needs to trademark the awesome design of their vintage-1997 web site. Animated gifs FTW! I halfway expected to trip over one of those digging "Under Construction" stick men.
Also, what kind of hardcore guild centralizes their activity on a carebear (or as Blizz called them, "normal") WoW server? Wussies.
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2-06-2006 @ 10:07PM
joker said...
pffft, it's not even an original name to wow. The syndicate are a mob type in the game...
Sounds like a guild that needs to get over itself.
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2-08-2006 @ 2:12PM
elle said...
If they named the Syndicate mobs after *The Syndicate(TM)*, then why does every quest involve me stealing their badges so that their leader kills them, or has someone sending me to slaughter them wholesale?
Some compliment.
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2-10-2006 @ 3:21PM
Oseary said...
I think you all should contact the members of the guild, as well as Blizzard before jumping to conclusions, and before looking like idiotic fanboys.
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