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I won't post the legalese here (it's easy enough to find), but the end is nigh for Harmony Gold against the various Battletech IP license holders.
If you don't know what this is about, it goes way back to the Macross designs from the 80's. While that particular suit was settled some time ago, HG brought it up again when Battletech redesigned those images again. They also took the computer arm of the Battletech IP (that wasn't Microsoft) to court to say they weren't different enough.
Yes, that is a really simplified description of what happened. You get the idea.
Anyway, in court today the judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, leaving him (the judge) only to sign it and make it official. For those that don't know, "with prejudice" means you cannot sue over that issue again.
So that awesome art on the Combat Manual of the new Marauder, that sweet Warhammer mini from GenCon a few years ago, ad a few other designs may be seeing the light of day soon! Huzzah!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/06/22 07:38:17
27th Member of D.O.O.M.F.A.R.T.
Resident Battletech Guru.
Elbows wrote: I hope this is as good as it sounds, but it never is with Harmony Gold, etc.
It's about as good as it could have been. PGI brought into question if HG even had the rights to what they were suing over, and the best HG could come up with was a vague maybe. It's one of the reasons the case was dismissed with prejudice.
27th Member of D.O.O.M.F.A.R.T.
Resident Battletech Guru.
i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff. Battletech was a great game but I’ve been completely uninterested in getting back into it after FASA dumped it over all this legal crap.
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"Why me?" Gideon begged, falling to his knees.
"Why not?" - Asdrubael Vect
clively wrote: i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff. Battletech was a great game but I’ve been completely uninterested in getting back into it after FASA dumped it over all this legal crap.
It was a lot more than just Macross. FASA licensed designs from a number of different Japanese companies (the legal question with regards to Macross was whether the company that FASA licensed the designs from had the right to do so in the first place outside of Japan) and used those designs for all of the original battlemechs. It wasn't until the 3025 Technical Readout that FASA-designed mech artwork started to show up. And to be blunt, the artwork just wasn't anywhere near as good - with the notable exception of the Atlas.
clively wrote: i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff. Battletech was a great game but I’ve been completely uninterested in getting back into it after FASA dumped it over all this legal crap.
It was a lot more than just Macross. FASA licensed designs from a number of different Japanese companies (the legal question with regards to Macross was whether the company that FASA licensed the designs from had the right to do so in the first place outside of Japan) and used those designs for all of the original battlemechs. It wasn't until the 3025 Technical Readout that FASA-designed mech artwork started to show up. And to be blunt, the artwork just wasn't anywhere near as good - with the notable exception of the Atlas.
The original "unseen" designs had two great advantages.
1. They looked really cool, because they had been designed by professional Japanese manga artists.
2. Nearly all of them were available as model kits. Given a large space you could build and fight Battletech in 1/72 scale with mechs about 6-10 inches tall.
I've still got boxes of the small scale metal models.
Kilkrazy wrote: The original "unseen" designs had two great advantages.
1. They looked really cool, because they had been designed by professional Japanese manga artists.
This is also the problem when licenced games try to expand their source material; whether it's FASA with the Star Trek licence, Agents of Gaming with Babylon 5 or West End Games with Star Wars, the stuff designed by the games companies is usually awful compared to the stuff designed by the film and TV studios. FFG's attempt, the Raider corvette for X-Wing, isn't too bad, all things considered (although there's a lot of ugly crap from WEG designs and computer games to help it look good), and GW have done pretty well with the Middle Earth licence. Although even there, some of the stuff they produced early on that wasn't in the film - original Radagast, Elladan and Elrohir, etc, doesn't quite stand up to the WETA-designed characters.
clively wrote: i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff.
The reason that they used the designs from Macross, Dougram, and Crusher Joe was that the models kits were cheap and easily available as import items sold at model shops and in vending machines. At the time Battledroids released (the original version of Battletech) you could get the 1/200 scale kits for about $1 and they initially built the game around those kits. They licensed the designs from TCI and sold repackaged kits packaged two per box with the Batletech logo and artwork. Due to space and table constraints they realized they needed to shrink the game down and started using metal models which also freed them up from being dependent on importing the plastic kits as their sole source of minatures. All of the 1st & 2nd gen mechs were ones based on the Japanese designs and model kits.
After getting a C&D from Lucas Film over the use of "droids" in the title it got changed to Battletech for 2nd edition and since they were now producing the metal minis they began adding their own custom designs that expanded beyond the initial boxed set and included all the new FASA designed mechs in the 3025 Technical Readout book (and most of them were pretty ugly compared to the core Japanese designs). With the first edition of the game there were no other mech designs beyond the Japanese mechs and without using those designs the game likely never would have caught on, while it set them up for later legal trouble with HG in the 90's (and beyond) most old school players tend to think of those designs as being inseparable to the core of what makes up Battletech.
This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2018/06/22 13:09:56
Paulson Games parts are now at:
www.RedDogMinis.com
clively wrote: i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff. Battletech was a great game but I’ve been completely uninterested in getting back into it after FASA dumped it over all this legal crap.
It was a lot more than just Macross. FASA licensed designs from a number of different Japanese companies (the legal question with regards to Macross was whether the company that FASA licensed the designs from had the right to do so in the first place outside of Japan) and used those designs for all of the original battlemechs. It wasn't until the 3025 Technical Readout that FASA-designed mech artwork started to show up. And to be blunt, the artwork just wasn't anywhere near as good - with the notable exception of the Atlas.
I am still hoping to use Marauders and Warhammers in BattleTech just as I already do in MWO
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
clively wrote: i wish FASA had simply created their own designs in the beginning instead of trying to use the macros stuff. Battletech was a great game but I’ve been completely uninterested in getting back into it after FASA dumped it over all this legal crap.
It was a lot more than just Macross. FASA licensed designs from a number of different Japanese companies (the legal question with regards to Macross was whether the company that FASA licensed the designs from had the right to do so in the first place outside of Japan) and used those designs for all of the original battlemechs. It wasn't until the 3025 Technical Readout that FASA-designed mech artwork started to show up. And to be blunt, the artwork just wasn't anywhere near as good - with the notable exception of the Atlas.
I liked them as Solaris VII `Mechs, since gladiator `Mechs were very customized and designed with flair in mind. Otherwise they are a little too busy in my opinion to be standard military designs.
In November 2016, Harmony Gold USA initiated arbitration against Tatsunoko, to which Tatsunoko responded with counterclaims.[23] With the exception of the original visual depictions of 41 characters, which are owned by Big West Advertising not Tatsunoko, the arbitrator found that Harmony Gold USA had the rights to The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada until their expiry on March 14, 2021, as per the licensing agreement. Harmony Gold USA also holds several trademarks related to Macross and its trademark for the Macross series was renewed on December 26, 2012. The expiration date for these will be ten years from that date, on December 26, 2022 but the pending expiration of the licensing agreement could affect the trademark ownership before 2022.[24]
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
c. Claimant [Harmony Gold] has no permanent, exclusive, and irrevocable copyright and trademark rights in the Programs [Macross] as same shall belong to Respondent [Tatsunoko Production, Ltd.] on expiration of the term in 2021;
d. Upon expiration of the term, [Tatsunoko] shall have the right and option to disaffirm/cancel any existing licenses, assignments and/or other agreements extending beyond the term as may have been entered into by [Harmony Gold] with others granting any rights in and to the Programs;
For the record I have that original Battledroids box set, and 2nd edition, and all of those TCI twin model scenario packs. Well, not the Deluxe set with the dropship, but the first 10 still waiting to be built. Interestingly, my Battledroids set came with a Dougram and Roundfacer, while the scenario sets came with the Dougram JAKT and Korchima Special Roundfacer. I thought that was interesting. I have seen some 1st edition sets on ebay that came with the later versions.
That's about all I like from Battletech to be honest. Blatant rip-offs, but since I was already a fan of the anime those robots were sourced from, I thought it was cool at the time. Some time after I thought it was lame they didn't design their own, but to be honest I hate 99% of any in-house FASA designed mech. Now I have far more appreciation for the early years of Battletech, and actually anything older and cheesy in sci-fi.
FASA was a pretty impressive company back in the day. Too much material for me to read, but between Battletech, Shadowrun, Star Trek, geez you could be reading books for the rest of your life.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/07/09 18:35:36
