The Syndicate®

The Syndicate began the process of Trademarking our guild name in the summer of 2004. The process was estimated to take about six months per the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website. A full eighteen months later, the process was completed and The Syndicate became the first MMO guild to trademark its name. We actually obtained two trademarks to protect our guild name, our logo and our slogan.

In actuality we obtained two servicemarks. A servicemark is basically a trademark that revolves around the performing of services.

According to the USPTO: “A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and service marks.

Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.”

The Syndicate applied for two marks rather than one for a couple of reasons. First, having one mark that was simply for the words “The Syndicate” as a guild name would help with enforcement. On the internet there seems to be a very large number of ‘armchair lawyers’ who, while not really being qualified to give a legal opinion, like to offer one up like it was pulled from the pages of the Bible.

One thing we anticipated was the argument that if we only had the combined logo + name mark that since they didn’t use our logo with the name that they weren’t in violation. That is an inaccurate argument but it makes things easier to have two because it eliminates those types of debates before they begin.

Second, we did want our logo and slogan protected as well. We didn’t simply want to protect our name because our logo and slogan are a significant part of our branding as well. There are huge numbers of Syndicate items (both for sale and ‘schwag’ that we pass out as well as in use in things like guides, newsletters and books) using both our logo and our slogan that we sought to protect.

The mark process was a very lengthy one due in part to being held up for several months with a possibly conflicting mark. It was also slowed down due to the fact that this was a new area. No one had ever trademarked an online gaming entities name before.

There were numerous emails and phone calls exchanged between our lawyers and the government lawyers to educate them on what exactly we were and what online gaming was and what commerce we had in place etc.. But when all was said and done, in December of 2005, our Trademarks were approved and the official paperwork arrived.

When word spread that we had Trademarked our guild name, many gamers and developers were extremely supportive. A few developers were shocked and angered feeling that we were, in essence, playing in their backyard without their permission. One site so far as to accuse us of discouraging creative enterprise and possibly causing the downfall of online gaming.