Attn. Developers: Regarding the title 'Planeshift'

[lostprophet]

I looked at the Magic the gathering website and it said all trademarks for their planeshift were coined in 2001. I can\'t remember exactly when our planeshift started life, but I think that was either 2000 or 2001 as well.

[Havena]

Originally posted by lostprophet
Planetshift? There are no planets in the game, this is not Star Wars! Planeshift comes from the different \"planes\" in the game, which there are eight of, and you can travel, or even \"shift\" between them.

Simple!

P.S. I mean planes like a large flat open space, not the ones that you get deep vein thrombosis on, foolio.

The word Plane in PlaneShift is used in the contemporary English sense of distinct worlds, dimensions or places.

There are eight layers in the construct of Yliakum, the civilisation in the great stalectite under the surface in the homeworld of PlaneShift.  However there could be less, or more than eight \"Planes\" in PlaneShift depending on how many the devs eventually implement.

There are planets in PlaneShift. They may not be visited and depicted in the same way as Starwars etc, but the Planes/places in PlaneShift are not just sitting in some obscure foundationless setting. The stalectite is in a giant cave underground in a planet. Some of the other \"Planes\" which will eventually be reachable through the portals etc., will be set on other planets; the planet of the Klyros or Diaboli. Others will be different parts of the homeworld.

[Kada-El]

Originally posted by lostprophet
I looked at the Magic the gathering website and it said all trademarks for their planeshift were coined in 2001. I can\'t remember exactly when our planeshift started life, but I think that was either 2000 or 2001 as well.

Don\'t worry, \'our\' lovely Planeshift was started way, way before that

[Talad]

Hi,
the PlaneShift Team is not made by inexperienced people and we always take into serious account the legal part of our project. This means that we already discussed and resolved long time ago that kind of problems and several others.

The name PlaneShift is currently used by more than one company and more than one product, including us. With the difference that we have used it long way before the others. In most countries the commercial usage of a name is what matter most and so we have to move from 1992 (when I\'ve placed some web pages about PlaneShift 2D on the web) to 1996, when I\'ve partecipated to a roadshow of the 2d version of PlaneShift for it\'s commercial usage. The roadshow was part of a big convention and we have all the documentation needed to prove that.

So we have a solid base to use that name. The only usage done before that date (1996) is an AD&D spell named Plane Shift (Player\'s Handbook, 5th level priests), but in that case \"Plane\" and \"Shift\" are really two separate english words and not a single name. Also a spell doesn\'t represent a branding of any sort.

Hope this clears up the issue.

[Drilixer]

wow - I never knew this game had been in \'development\' (for lack of a better word) for so long

Good Job

[Kreigore]

The name \"PlaneShift\" (as we know it) if used prior to the release of \"Magic the Gathering:  PlaneShift\" by the Developers would more than likely retain the right to the title, so it should not be an issue.  Also, the game does not make any money, therefore, it is not for-profit.  The only way \"Magic the Gathering\" may interfere with the title in anyway is if \"PlaneShift\" (as we know it) were making money and using copywritten/trademarked material by \"Magic the Gathering.\"

Essentially, what I am writing now is copywritten.  You do not need to go the Federal government of any other agency to \"copywrite\" a work of literature or what not.  Once the work is completed and distinguishable as your own, it is copywritted by the respected author.

-Kreigore