Great news to share. We have a signed addendum with Paradox Interactive to clarify open licensing and a couple of proper names/trademarks -- especially "Order of Hermes" and "Tremere."
In the original purchase of Ars Magica by Wizards of the Coast from White Wolf, these terms were "Excluded Assets" that remained the property of White Wolf, with WotC having permission to use them and sublicense their use. Similarly, there was a set of Ars Magica "Licensed Assets" that White Wolf was permitted to use with similar conditions.
We want to be able to license third parties to produce Ars Magica materials, and would prefer not to require that the Order of Hermes be renamed in third party books. Paradox Interactive, successors to White Wolf and owners now of the World of Darkness properties, are supportive! Their reasonable concern is to protect their own trademarks from dilution and avoid confusion in the marketplace.
So we have agreed on these terms:
In the event Buyer sublicense the Game under an open license the Buyer shall ensure use of the Excluded Assets under the open license are done in a way that does not cause the validity of the Excluded Assets to be questioned by imposing the following restrictions in any trademark license or permission that accompanies the open licensing of Ars Magica's text:
a) The Excluded Assets may only be used in Ars Magica material and not be exploited in any shape or manner separate therefrom;
b) The third party must include the legal phrase “[Excluded Assets] is/are a trademark(s) of Paradox Interactive AB and is used with permission.” in their legal section and agree that all uses shall inure to the benefit of Paradox Interactive AB;
c) The material created under the open license may not misrepresent its origin to state that the
material is provided by Paradox Interactive AB or in connection with World of Darkness®;
d) Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of the Excluded Assets; and
e) The material created under the open license may not be called [Excluded Assets] or appear in the name of the material.
I am pleased, and grateful to Paradox Interactive for their cooperation. This provides the clear safe harbor third-party creators will need to confidently expand the Ars Magica game world without needing to rename these long-cherished elements of Mythic Europe.
Could we get clarification on part e)? Does that mean that if I create an want to publish an adventure in the Transylvanian tribunal that "Tremere" cannot appear in the title but can appear in the material within the work provided the other criteria are met? What about the "material created cannot be called [Excluded Assets] part? If I want to have a Tremere meeting hall it cannot be named after the House, like "The Wandering Tremere" or am I misreading that?
It means you can't use "Tremere" or "Order of Hermes" in the titles of your products. So, if you want to write a book about the Tremere, you have to call it "Masters of Coeris", or something similar. The point here is to avoid anything that might cast doubt on whether these are really trademarks of Paradox, and advertising something with the [Excluded Assets] in the title might do exactly that.
In light of the OGL debacle, I am concerned with the possibility of the trademark owners (whether they be Paradox or future ones) to rescind this permission at a later date (so that you suddenly can't use the name 'Tremere' in new products) or retrocatively (so that you now have to burn the books you have already produced).
The original purchase agreement between Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf conveyed perpetual permission to use those terms and to permit their use by Ars Magica licensees. Hence the addendum was simply to add clarity specifically for open licensing; it was also a chance for us to formally touch base (and update addresses and legalese) as the current parties to the mutual obligations from that original agreement.
I would not be concerned, but YMMV, and of course anyone is free to avoid Ars Magica-related trademarks altogether if they feel they should out of an abundance of caution.
They cannot do that legally. The whole OGL debacle was caused by totally unlawful attempt to void previously legal content. I have not seen single lawyer of either American or international law to agree the claim was legal. It was ruthless attempt of thuggery, and failed miserably.
You cannot alter any legal content that way. It is just not the way how laws works. The problem was that business to business courts may be used to destroy companies with unlawful claims, if and when American judge is not doing his job, but taking as much money he can from his fees. The judge has legal option to void a case which is unlawful, but there is numerous cases they do not do so. Especially on certain states companies wants to use for suing has very corrupt judges, and the companies withdraw their cases, if the judge is not proper.
This is excellent news, and the terms are really wonderful. The exclusion of the names from titles is very good idea, and actually fits to the naming convention of the Ars Magica book titles very well.