In fact, as best I have been able to determine, the trademark for
DragonQuest referring to a role-playing game has lapsed. Trademarks
are much more volatile than copyrights, and must be actively used and
defended in order to remain valid.
This is, in my opinion, why TSR produced a board game called
"DragonQuest" a few years after they published the 3rd Ed of DQ. They
wanted to keep the name, but they shifted it to another product.
Close enough that no one else could produce a game called DragonQuest,
but taking the 'real' DragonQuest off the market.
I've done some research on the "DragonQuest" trademark, as well.
Again, let me be clear that I am not a lawyer, and my research has not
been exhaustive. But I have used the database of the USTPO, and all
that I have found seems to indicate that the trademark is dead.
Not only has nothing been done by Hasbro/WotC/TSR with the name
"DragonQuest" for many years, but, the people who *have* been trading
using the name "DragonQuest" are people like myself with DragonQuest
groups and the Newsletter and JohnR (who registered dragonquest.org)
and the like. We of the DragonQuest community are the active users of
the name "DragonQuest."
Read the attached bit about trademark attached to the end of this. It
has certainly been more than ten years since there was any use of
"DragonQuest" to represent a role-playing game. Even TSR's
"DragonQuest" board game (released in 1992) was most likely out of
catalog by 1994. It's quite clear to me that no one else holds a
competing claim to the DragonQuest trademark.
--Rodger Thorm