Choose Your Own Adventure

[Philipp Lenssen]

"Erik Max Francis" <max at alcyone.com> wrote in message
news:3CD5ABA8.E37F1ED8 at alcyone.com...
>..
> It is true that trademarked terms that come into household usage will
> lose their trademark after litigation.  This, however, has not happened
> with "Choose Your Own Adventure" (at least not to my knowledge).  But do
> you really want to be the one to litigate this issue?  Wouldn't it be
> easier to choose something that is free of trademark violation issues?
>..

The term CYOA is used, as I explained, to describe exactly what QML
produces, all around the web and newsgroups. If I want to quickly explain
what QML does I need to use this term without many alternatives, and this
will help anybody accessing the site.

Added to CYOA I use other different terms to get the point across --
hyperfiction, multiple-choice, gamebook -- but none of these are 100%
accurate and as quickly understood (one could argue even misleading in some
cases; hyperfiction connected to multi-user authoring, multiple-choice to
tests, gamebooks to paper).

Please note that I *don't* use "Choose Your Own Adventure" for the tagline
in the QML-logo, because I don't want to directly connect a general term
with a special piece of software and claim it mine. Instead I opted for
"Create Your Own Adventure". If somebody else trademarked this phrase I will
freely let it go and choose something else, since QML is intended as
freeware project and not a legal hassle.
(Hmm, maybe I would then go for "QML - The Choice of a New Generation".)
Please also note that I chose "Wähl-Deine-Eigene-Geschichte Spielsystem" in
the german translation.

Now, to avoid confusion I *could* add a note on the copyright page stating
QML is in no way connected to Distributor XYZ. Ironically, this would
suddenly start search engines to return the QML website if the user enters
"Distributor XYZ" as keyword, when actually that would be a clear indicator
she's looking not for CYOA in general, but a very specific kind of series.
(Even if a someone would stumble on QML accidentaly this way and like it,
attracting the right people in the wrong way cannot be in my interest.)