History ScrewedByTheLawyers / TabletopGames

* The ''Franchise/JamesBond 007'' RPG published by Victory Games (part of Avalon Hill) starting in 1983 got it twice. The first was that because of Kevin [=McClory=]'s lawsuit, Victory Games was not allowed to make any mention of SPECTRE or Ernst Stavro Blofeld [[note]]apart from a single line mentioning that Blofeld was behind the murder of James Bond's wife, Teresa di Vicenzo, in the Q Manual entry for the Lancia Zagato[[/note]], so they created an {{Expy}} of the same organization named TAROT for the game's background. The second was that Victory Games and Danjaq LLC got into arguments over licensing payments that resulted in the game being forced to cease publication in 1987.

* The ''Franchise/JamesBond 007'' RPG published by Victory Games (part of Avalon Hill) starting in 1983 got it twice. The first was that because of Kevin [=McClory=]'s lawsuit, Victory Games was not allowed to make any mention of SPECTRE or Ernst Stavro Blofeld, so they created an {{Expy}} of the same organization named TAROT for the game's background. The second was that Victory Games and Danjaq LLC got into arguments over licensing payments that resulted in the game being forced to cease publication in 1987.

* A popular game from Cheapass Games was "Before I Kill You, Mister Bond". (The premise was that villains don't just shoot the captured agent because he's worth more points if [[JustBetweenYouAndMe he's taunted a few times first]].) It was pulled off the market after a cease-and-desist from MGM, and reissued as "Before I Kill You, Mister ''Spy''". MGM didn't like that one either. Cheapass later re-released the game as "James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game", and so far seems to have not garnered any attention from MGM again.

* When ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' first debuted, it made liberal use of 'Mech designs licensed from various Japanese animes. Problem was that they weren't ''properly'' licensed, and Harmony Gold, the American distributor and owner of these designs, took issue with the 'Mechs. They are now called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Unseen]]. In summer of 2015, Catalyst Gaming Labs, the company that produces [=BattleTech=], announced that after years of trying to resecure the rights to the Unseen images, they had instead decided to retcon their appearance using new, created-by-Catalyst artwork that was similar to their original appearances while being just different enough to keep the lawyers happy.
** Even worse, there is, officially no first edition of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' at all. The first edition was actually a game called "Battle''Droids''". The word "droid" is a registered trademark of [[Franchise/StarWars Lucasfilm]]. Depending on who you talk to, either Lucas' lawyers sent a letter to FASA, or FASA voluntarily decided to change the name to curry favor with Lucasfilm as groundwork for (ultimately unsuccessful) negotiations to do a ''Star Wars'' RPG. Either way, FASA took the opportunity to refine the game while renaming it.
** The events that led to the Unseen involved another example of being screwed by the lawyers: FASA filed a lawsuit against Playmate Toys due to their unlicensed use of the likeness of one of TabletopGame/BattleTech's iconic mechs for a toy for the ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'' toy line. The court ruled in FASA's favor that it was a violation of their copyright, but also ruled that FASA wasn't due any money since it didn't directly compete with their own products. It was about this time that they realized that they didn't actually have the rights to the Unseen and stopped using them before Harmony Gold went after them.
** It should be known that the statement that the anime mechs were not licensed correctly wasn't completely true. The mechs FASA licensed from Japanese company Big West, mostly mechs from ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', were properly licensed (via Twentieth Century Imports (TCI)). The problem, is that Harmony Gold claimed the copyright to all of these designs via their deal with Tatsunoku, and subsequently sued FASA over them, turning FASA into a collateral victim of the Big West-Studio Nue-Tatsunoku Productions-Harmony Gold ''Macross'' rights clusterfuck. It got to the point that even the redesigns created by Catalyst Gaming Labs mentioned above still got sued by Harmony Gold, leading to yet more Unseening. These shenanigans [[http://www.sarna.net/news/update-on-the-harmony-gold-lawsuit/ finally stopped in 2017]]: ''VideoGame/MechWarriorOnline'' developer Piranha Games successfully argued in court that Tatsunoko never owned the IP they licensed to Harmony Gold, getting the claim dismissed with prejudice, and ''VideoGame/BattleTech'''s Paradox and Harebrained Schemes [[http://www.sarna.net/news/harmony-golds-case-against-harebrained-schemes-dismissed/ won a similar judgement]] in 2018, [[https://bg.battletech.com/news/statement-from-catalyst-game-labs-on-conclusion-of-harmony-gold-legal-action/ effectively ending Harmony Gold's vendetta against the franchise for good.]] See the accompanying web pages for more information.

** This trend would continue with 40K when GW tried but failed to trademark the name "Space Marine." This resulted in the Imperial Guard being officially renamed to the Astra Militarum, and would continue with the release of the ''Gathering Storm'' supplements and the 8th edition rules by changing the Eldar race to the Aeldari (as the word 'Eldar' was coined by Creator/JRRTolkien to describe the elves), the Craftworld Eldar to the Asuryani or simply Craftworlders, the Dark Eldar to the Drukhari, and the Tau race to the name of their homeworld, T'au.

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' trading card game: The franchise's owners were sued by self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller, who claimed they used his persona in a negative way as Kadabra. The company won, saying it didn't base Pokemon on people (although Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan and Wobbuffet may beg to differ, and, in all fairness, the Japanese name for the mon, "Yungerer", and said mon's use of bending spoons to demonstrate psychic powers are clear references), but there still hasn't been a release since then of a Kadabra card in the game. Oddly, Abra and Alakazam do show up, even though (since older cards, including all printed Kadabra cards, are disallowed in tournaments) Alakazam can only be played nowadays with special cards allowing the playing of evolved Pokemon, or in the case of a few Japanese releases, as special variants that don't count as evolved at all.

** It should be known that the statement that the anime mechs were not licensed correctly wasn't completely true. The mechs FASA licensed from Japanese company Big West, mostly mechs from ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', were properly licensed (via Twentieth Century Imports (TCI)). The problem, is that Harmony Gold claimed the copyright to all of these designs via their deal with Tatsunoku, and subsequently sued FASA over them, turning FASA into a collateral victim of the Big West-Studio Nue-Tatsunoku Productions-Harmony Gold ''Macross'' rights clusterfuck. It got to the point that even the redesigns created by Catalyst Gaming Labs mentioned above still got sued by Harmony Gold, leading to yet more Unseening. These shenanigans [[http://www.sarna.net/news/update-on-the-harmony-gold-lawsuit/ finally stopped in 2017]]: ''VideoGame/MechWarriorOnline'' developer Piranha Games successfully argued in court that Tatsunoko never owned the IP they licensed to Harmony Gold, getting the claim dismissed with prejudice, and ''VideoGame/BattleTech'''s Paradox and Harebrained Schemes [[http://www.sarna.net/news/harmony-golds-case-against-harebrained-schemes-dismissed/ won a similar judgement]] in 2018, [[https://bg.battletech.com/news/statement-from-catalyst-game-labs-on-conclusion-of-harmony-gold-legal-action/ effectively ending Harmony Gold's vendetta against the franchise for good.]] See the accompanying web pages for more information.

** It should be known that the statement that the anime mechs were not licensed correctly wasn't completely true. The mechs FASA licensed from Japanese company Big West, mostly mechs from ''SuperDimensionalFortressMacross'', were properly licensed (via Twentieth Century Imports (TCI)). The problem, is that Harmony Gold claimed the copyright to all of these designs via their deal with Tatsunoku, and subsequently sued FASA over them, turning FASA into a collateral victim of the Big West-Studio Nue-Tatsunoku Productions-Harmony Gold ''Macross'' rights clusterfuck. It got to the point that even the redesigns created by Catalyst Gaming Labs mentioned above still got sued by Harmony Gold, leading to yet more Unseening. These shenanigans [[http://www.sarna.net/news/update-on-the-harmony-gold-lawsuit/ finally stopped in 2017]]: ''VideoGame/MechWarriorOnline'' developer Piranha Games successfully argued in court that Tatsunoko never owned the IP they licensed to Harmony Gold, getting the claim dismissed with prejudice, and ''VideoGame/BattleTech'''s Paradox and Harebrained Schemes [[http://www.sarna.net/news/harmony-golds-case-against-harebrained-schemes-dismissed/ won a similar judgement]] in 2018, [[https://bg.battletech.com/news/statement-from-catalyst-game-labs-on-conclusion-of-harmony-gold-legal-action/ effectively ending Harmony Gold's vendetta against the franchise for good.]] See the accompanying web pages for more information.

** It should be known that the statement that the anime mechs were not licensed correctly wasn't completely true. The mechs FASA licensed from Japanese company Big West, mostly mechs from ''[[Macross]]'', were properly licensed. The problem, is that Harmony Gold claimed the copyright to all of these designs via their deal with Tatsunoku, and subsequently sued FASA over them, turning FASA into a collateral victim of the Big West-Studio Nue-Tatsunoku Productions-Harmony Gold ''Macross'' rights clusterfuck. It got to the point that even the redesigns created by Catalyst Gaming Labs mentioned above still got sued by Harmony Gold, leading to yet more Unseening. These shenanigans [[http://www.sarna.net/news/update-on-the-harmony-gold-lawsuit/ finally stopped in 2017]]: ''VideoGame/MechWarriorOnline'' developer Piranha Games successfully argued in court that Tatsunoko never owned the IP they licensed to Harmony Gold, getting the claim dismissed with prejudice, and ''VideoGame/BattleTech'''s Paradox and Harebrained Schemes [[http://www.sarna.net/news/harmony-golds-case-against-harebrained-schemes-dismissed/ won a similar judgement]] in 2018, [[https://bg.battletech.com/news/statement-from-catalyst-game-labs-on-conclusion-of-harmony-gold-legal-action/ effectively ending Harmony Gold's vendetta against the franchise for good.]] See the accompanying web pages for more information.

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' trading card game: The franchise's owners were sued by self-proclaimed psychic Uri Gellar, who claimed they used his persona in a negative way as Kadabra. The company won, saying it didn't base Pokemon on people (although Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan and Wobbuffet may beg to differ, and, in all fairness, the Japanese name for the mon, "Yungerrer", and said mon's use of bending spoons to demonstrate psychic powers are clear references), but there still hasn't been a release since then of a Kadabra card in the game. Oddly, Abra and Alakazam do show up, even though (since older cards, including all printed Kadabra cards, are disallowed in tournaments) Alakazam can only be played nowadays with special cards allowing the playing of evolved Pokemon, or in the case of a few Japanese releases, as special variants that don't count as evolved at all.

* After Creator/GaryGygax was forced out of TSR he decided to create a new fantasy role-playing game with Creator/{{GDW}}. He was going to call it ''Dangerous Dimensions'', but when TSR threatened a lawsuit saying "DD" was too close to "D&D" he changed it to ''Dangerous Journeys''. The first few books were produced, then TSR sued anyway for copyright infringement, seemingly based on the idea that it was an updated version of D&D. In an out-of-court settlement they ended up buying the rights to the game, and they immediately shelved it.