In September of 2020, a conspiracy began to dig up the corpse of TSR Inc and parade it around for profit. This villainous act of vile necromancy continues to this day.


The judge, S. Kate Vaughn, has made a ruling denying the injunction to prevent TSR LLC/Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum/Justin LaNasa from further promoting Star Frontiers: New Genesis for the duration of the trial.

While this might seem to be a victory for LaNasa, but it's really more adverting of a disaster - injunctions are inherently difficult to obtain in the civil system and courts will generally err on the side of caution since it something that can have a major (even catastrophic) impact on a party before a full trial is held. Had Wizards succeeded with the injunction, it would have signaled the judge seeing the trial as a near foregone conclusion.

A screenshot from the judgement with highlights that injunctions are described as "an extraordinary and drastic remedy, one that should not be granted unless the movant, by a clear showing, carries the burden of persuasion." "A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy never awarded as a right." "In all cases, the burden of persuasion remains with the party seeking preliminary injunctive relief."

A screenshot from the judgement with highlights that "Wizards may well, in future, establish its ownership interest in the Marks through earlier and continuous use. However, there are too many unresolved issues and factual disputes for the Court to find that Wizards has demonstrated a likelihood of success at this stage."

The judge has cited three key areas for the decision denying the injunction.

Dispute over validity of the (very) offensive copy

A key element of the judge's assessment was that there is a dispute over a key part of the evidence, specifically the copy of the Star Frontiers: New Genesis work in progress document that includes the deplorable content such as the "Negro" race and the jokes about making a trans race (referred to as the "Subpoenaed SFNG"). Specifically, Justin LaNasa claims it is not real, and certainly was not to be distributed to anyone.

Wizards of the Coast has submitted evidence that it is real (ie the meta data), but without it being beyond dispute - this makes this the sort of thing that the judge would, later in the trial - either rule on or ask the jury to rule on based on all the evidence and arguments put forward by both sides after full discovery, depositions and cross examination.

It is not unusual for a judge to refuse to decide the facts at this stage in a proceeding - though notably that this is a matter of concern suggests that had the judge been confident the validity of the document, they may have explored the areas of reputational harm.

A screenshot of a highlighted paragraph "In this case, the primary basis for Wizards' request for preliminary injunctive relief - the Subpoenaed SFNG - is subject to dispute of fact.  While it is understandable why the content of the document prompted Wizards to seek preliminary injunction, the evidence before the Court does not allow for a determination of the individual(s) responsible for creating and disseminating the Subpoenaed SFNG. What is clear is that Counterclaim Defendants have disavowed the Subpeonaed SFNG, rendering an injunction directed at Counterclaim Defendants futile."

Lack of danger of irreparable harm

As covered in the final sentence, the judge does consider that the official (under penalty of perjury) disavowal of the material essentially neutralizes all potential harm - particularly since there was also a statement made in the oral arguments that they do not intended to publish a Star Frontiers: New Genesis product until the completion of the court case.

If that sounds like they diffused the injunction by effectively agreeing to it voluntarily, that's because they basically did.

Though the judge elaborates she did not feel Wizards of the Coast has provided "concrete" evidence of potential harm, and seems to doubt the potential of a company that hasn't published anything to harm a mega corporation's products (they also acknowledged the cards as a complaint, but did not feel the playing cards were quite bad enough to require an injunction).

A screenshot of the judgement with two sets of text highlighted, "That is, Wizards does not identify concrete evidence of a loss of control over its business reputation and damage to its goodwill separate and apart from the Subpoenaed SFNG and LaNasa SFNG games, which Counterclaim Defendants have either disavowed or committed to refrain from publishing. In fact, it is apparent Wizards did not see a need for a preliminary injunction until Mr. Semora produced the Subpoenaed SFNG." and later "At oral argument, Wizards expressed concern regarding the SFNG palying cards that are available on Counterclaim Defendants' website, arguing that the cards reflected Counterclaim Defendants' efforts to market a future game release. But the existence of the cards themselves does not rise to the level of irreparable harm required to warrant a preliminary injunction."

Lack of clarity on the history of the marks

I've left this point until last as it seems to be relatively minor compared to the other two, but is also interesting in that it seems to be a little bit instructional from the judge on how she would like to see the proceedings go ahead.

The judge also cites as a dispute of fact, whether Wizards of the Coast has maintained ownership of the marks - pointing to NuTSR's claim that the use of marks on Gygax Magazine extinguished ownership - to the extent that they apparently raised this point again at oral arguments and so this seems to be a basket they're putting a lot of eggs into.

A screenshot from the judgement with highlighted text "Counterclaim Defendants dispute Wizards' alleged ownership interest. They point, for example, to the absence of evidence showing Wizards' continuous use of the Marks since its 1997 acquisition of TSR, Inc. or showing Wizards' protection of its exclusive use of the Marks as would be required to maintain ownership. (Mr. LaNasa states: "For example, Jayson Elliot, Ernie Gygax, and Luke Gygax used the TSR Mark... between 2011 and 2019 without any assertion of superior rights by [Wizards] that I am aware of."

The judge then went on to elaborate on Wizards' response in a manner that suggests she is expecting them to not just put all the eggs in the "evidence of use" basket - and would like them to address this in some capacity.

A screenshot from the judgement with highlighted text "Wizards maintains it need not offer more than the beginning date and subsequent use of the Marks by its licensee. In so doing, Wizards did not response to Counterclaim Defendant's assertions as to the length gap in time between Wizards' acquisition and later licensing of the Marks and its failure to preserve its exclusive use of the Marks. At oral argument, Counterclaim Defendants argued these and other issues remain in dispute and preclude a finding in Wizards' favor on the question of trademark ownership."

Obviously the final decision on how much that matters will be up to the jury, but this is probably useful information for Wizards of the Coast to have on hand as they move forward into the main trial. No such titbits for NuTSR other than... um... yeah put off making any Star Frontiers: New Genesis stuff until... where's that schedule again...

Screenshot of an earlier court document showing the counterclaim jury trial is set for 9 am on 16 October 2023... and is expected to go for five days.

Guess they're going to have some time to brainstorm ideas.


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