In cleaning out Grandma's attic, we came across a 1968 version of Hasbro's Risk game, still in the plastic.

Similar Item: https://www.amazon.com/d/Kids-Board-Games/Vintage-Board-Parker-Brothers-Continental/B008CELLU4

Now that there is a game better than Hasbro's Risk, what to do with this box? Sell it on ebay and net ~$50, play it, send it to Fizzer in barter for 'jail green'?

If I were Fizzer I would love that sent to my place unnoticed in christmas

This is Parker Brothers' Risk. Fizzer has yet to clarify whether Warzone is better than Parker Brothers' Risk.

(I also really want to see the cease and desist letter that probably spurred Fizzer to change the title.)

"Risk" is a general name for this sort of game; it shouldn't be copyrighted.

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/turborisk/26p_SQWpACk

@Vernal, you're wrong on every base.

-Risk being copyrighted is not at issue with respect to Warlight/zone.
-Trademark is the term you're looking for.
-The argument you're looking for is whether or not 'Risk' is generic.

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While the standard character mark 'risk' has been abandoned. (http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:h4n21q.9.10), Hasbro maintains the typed drawing mark for 'RISK', which is roughly the equivalent of a standard character mark. It just depends on when you filed for the mark with respect to changing trademark law and terms.

So, as they hold a registered trademark (http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:h4n21q.9.2), and they are actively enforcing their mark (as provided for by Knyte), the term is not generic.

Thus, its an active trademark, which you are not allowed to use unless you have permission from the trademark holder.

The purpose of trademark is to be a service to the consumer. If there is a likely confusion with a consumer seeing a first mark and associating it with the source of goods of another mark, that is possibly a trademark violation for use of the first mark.

If a map used is the exact same images of that of a risk map, then you are in copyright territory. The purpose of copyright law is to ensure the creative efforts of the artists are preserved.

Edited 8/2/2019 17:54:34

So, if I'm understanding this right, Hasbro can't actually successfully go after Warzone for "Play Risk Online Free" (although I guess they have a stronger case on the Small Earth map copyright).

Don't see what they'd be able to win a trademark suit on. Seems like the real threat is legal action itself. I'm surprised their trademark is on just the "RISK" logomark.

Now I *really* want to see what their lawyers sent Fizzer.

Wrong. If you were to advertise, "Play Risk Online Free", you would very likely be giving the impression that the game they were playing on that site came from the same source as the makers of the game Risk, regardless of if you knew it was Hasbro or not.

As to the copyright of the small earth map, that would have a very weak copyright claim. While maps are covered by copyright law, the features of the small earth map do not represent that of the original Risk maps. Yes, general territories and their arrangement may be similar, but its not as if Parker Bros. originally went out and independently created their map of the world. I wouldn't advise Hasbro to attempt to litigate this aspect.

As you may notice, warlight still features the small earth map, but doesn't say, "play risk online" on its tagline.

Ah, that trademark confusion angle makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

Was mainly curious because there's still a ton of hits for "Play Risk Online Free" so it seems like Hasbro's lawyers are either not that vigilant or not that convincing. Conquer Club is older than WZ, iirc, and have been rocking the "Play Risk Online Free" thing for a while. Maybe they're paying Hasbro off?

Keep it so that if you want to play Risk but don’t have an Internet connection, you can still play against humans.