Understanding the Chrono Trigger Trademark Fiasco

A little over a week ago, Joystiq, along with every other major blog concerned with video games, reported that Square Enix sent a cease and desist order to the creators of the fan hack project Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. The fans had been working on the rom for a total of five years before the cease and desist order was issued, but they felt that they had no choice, but to comply with the order. So, the site that originally was making Crimson echoes not only shut down this project, but all other fan projects in order to avoid the costs and hassle of litigation.

But was that the right decision? This blog entry is going to use the copyright and trademark law to analyze rather this was an act of solid, foundational logic, or cowardice on the part of the fans who were creating the game. Also, we are going to talk about why the publisher of the original Chrono Trigger, Square-Enix, may have thought it had no choice but to protect its beloved character, even from the fans who love him most.

First, we need to get a pretty good understanding of trademark law if we are going to try to analyze who was right, or wrong, in this particular situation. First, having a trademark is NOT the same as owning a copyright. Copyrights are only for a specific work of art, fiction, or music. To put it simply, you can own the copyright to Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone. However, you cannot own the copyright to Harry Potter. If you wanted to protect the boy wizard as your character, you would have to register him as a trademark. Disney owns the trademark for Mickey Mouse, and Marvel owns the trademark for Wolverine. This keeps people from making money off the characters that Disney and Marvel created.

Second, and this distinction is very important, in a copyright case the owner of the copyright can only sue for any profits made from that infringement. So, if I made $100.00 selling Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, Scholastic could only reasonable expect to sue me for $100.00. With trademarks it does not work like this. Scholastic might expect to get my profits from selling the book, the damages sustainedby them as I was selling the book, and the costs of bringing the lawsuit to court.

The fans who were creating this Chrono Trigger rom were not planning to make any money off of it. Indeed, it was going to be, as far as I know, a free service. If this had been a copyright issue, they would not need to have worried. However, this was a trademark issue, which means that potentially they could have been forced to pay for the millions of dollars it may have cost Square Enix to take the case to court, as well as any damages Square could convince the courts that the rom had done to the franchise. This is the reason that when most small groups get a cease and desist order, they comply almost immediately. Of course, this also lets the trademark holder abuse its power. Its reported, for instance, that Disney sends out a cease and desist order everytime they see a black mouse in any form of media.

It is understandable that the creators of this rom were not going to let this go to court, but if they had, they could have fought it in one of two ways. First, they could have claimed that it was "fair use", which basically means that it was used in reference. For instance, this blog entry has the fair use of Chrono Trigger all over it. Everytime I say the name I am using it fairly, as well as when I used the picture, because I am talking about Chrono Trigger in a fair manner. I am not using Chrono Trigger, or any of the characters in a story, or in a game. Obviously, this is not what the makers of this rom were doing, which is why they would have had a very tough time winning in this way. The other way they could have fought it was by saying that Crimson Echoes was a parody of the original game. The Supreme Court has ruled that parodies of trademarks are allowable because if there were not substantial similarities between the original and the parody, no one would get it. This is why Mickey Mouse can show up on Comedy Central's Drawn Together and nobody gets sued. Judging by the reverence that the fans showed towards the original Chrono Trigger, I doubt that Crimson Echoes would have fit into the parody category. The makers of the Crimson Echoes rom were right to avoid going to court; it would have been very difficult for them to win the case.

The next question is whether or not Square Enix should have issued the Cease and Desist Order. The general buzz around the internet when this story first broke was that this was a dreadful thing, and that Square should be boycotted (at least until the next Final Fantasy comes out). The problem is that Square Enix may not have had much of a choice about the matter. Sometimes, it is necessary to protect your trademark assets even from those who love that asset most. Think about it. If Crimson Echoes was a very extensive project, and if it had done as well as some think it might have, it would have put a serious damper on Square's ability to match it. Imagine, if you will, one very good writer and one mediocre writer with a wonderful idea. For shits and giggles let's call the good writer Stephen King. Let's call the mediocre writer J.K. Rowling. For shits and giggles. Now, imagine, that after the third book of the series Stephen King had stepped in and written the next book for her. Let's assume it was better than anything J.K. Rowling could write on her own, even though he used her characters. Trademarks serve to make sure that something like this cannot happen. The credit goes to the person who had the original idea for a reason, and in this case that's Squaresoft. Perhaps the fans would have made a better game than Squaresoft could make. Perhaps the fans would have accidentally pirated the series by outdoing anything Squaresoft could do themselves. Squaresoft couldn't let that happen, which is exactly why trademark laws exist.

Top Ten Super Nintendo Games

First, to make this list the game must be a game made for the Super Nintendo System; not a rerelease of older games like Super Mario All stars. Also, the game must have been released in North America during the SNES’ run (Sorry Mother and Seiken Densetsu 3).

10. ActRaiser

ActRaiser was brilliant because it was a two part game that managed to make both parts of the game fun and addicting. Neither part felt like an interruption from the other part. Playing as the God with a sword who had to defeat all the enemies in a given level was almost as fun as the overworld part of ActRaiser in which you had to help cities grow and prosper as their God. The gameplay was never slow, never dull, and there was a pretty big power rush about getting to play God for the little people on your television screen. Also, the music was brilliant in this game. This is definitely an under-appreciated classic of the Super Nintendo Era.

9. Donkey Kong Country

Although all of the Donkey Kong Country’s were great during the series’ run on the SNES, the greatest, by far, was the original. Donkey and Diddy worked extremely well together. The gameplay was fun and intuitive. The characters were extremely likable and a lot of fun to interact with (especially Kranky Kong who is always good for a laugh). The bad guys were challenging, and the four animal friends you could find were a lot of fun to ride. Also, in this game you could actually play Donkey Kong, which is enough to earn it a spot as a better overall game than Donkey Kong Country 2 (though I really suggest that you play both games to come to a decision for yourself as both are really excellent games).

8. Super Mario World 2 Yoshi’s Island

Nintendo didn’t throw any punches with this release despite the fact that it came near to the end of the SNES' run. Yoshi’s Island is just straight fun. And even after the first run through of the game you will find yourself entertained for hours trying to get a 100% score on all the levels in the game. Yoshi’s Island failed to seem as deep as Super Mario World for a couple of reasons. The first, is that the worlds you travelled through did not feel like worlds, but rather more like levels lined up one next to the other. Second, was the linear progression of the game. There were no shortcuts in Yoshi’s Island; no way to skip over some of the levels, which made this game feel less extensive than Super Mario World. However, the graphics were considerably better in Yoshi’s Island; there was a great deal more dialogue, and the boss fights throughout the game were far more complicated than jumping on someone’s head three times. These few improvements to the classical Mario formula put Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island firmly on the list of the greatest Super Nintendo games.

7. Super Mario Kart

The Super Nintendo’s Super Mario Kart was Mario’s first venture into racing, and the rest is history. The racing style of Super Mario Kart would have been enough to keep me hooked for hours, but Nintendo gave us so much more than that. Nintendo also gave us time trials, and vs play. Most importantly, though, Nintendo added the Battle Mode to the Vs. section of Super Mario Kart, and gamers like me were hooked. Sure, it was fun to beat your friend (or your sister) in a race, but not half so much fun as pelting her with a red or green shell.

6. EarthBound

A game about a kid who is destined to save the world from a hostile alien with a baseball bat doesn’t seem like it would make sense, does it? Earthbound may be one of the strangest games on the SNES, but that didn’t keep it from being one of the most fun titles available for the Super Nintendo. EarthBound was odd from beginning to end; you got attacked by police officers and town bullies as much, if not more, than you got attacked by monsters. And every time you defeated those bullies or cops you’re Dad would add more money into your bank account. That’s right, you would get paid for fighting. Despite its oddity, or maybe because of it, EarthBound’s story remains interesting while the gameplay keeps you challenged and entertained. If you missed this one the first time around, you really missed out. Good luck trying to find a copy now, though.They can run upwards of $100 on Ebay, and so far, Nintendo has not released the title for Virtual Console download.

5. Super Mario RPG, Legend of the Seven Stars

Mario’s first RPG has never really been outdone by any Mario RPG game since. The characters really serve the story well. But Seven Stars shines best in its gameplay element. Certainly, not a mario game, but an RPG, Seven Stars manages to maintain the Mario charm during elements of the gameplay. You can jump throughout the game, as well as jump as one of Mario’s special attacks. This made the feel of Seven Stars stay consistent with the feel of Mario; but with many of the same rules as the RPG genre. The result was a video game experience that played like no other, and a welcome edition to the SNES library.

4. The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past

Link to the Past took the story of Zelda back to its roots. The side-scrolling days of Zelda II were over, and Link returned to his past roots from the original Legend of Zelda. The result was one of the most critically acclaimed, and well known, game of the SNES era; The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Of course, the excellence of this game cannot simply be attributed to its return to the form that The Legend of Zelda took. Instead, Link to the Past really improved upon the formula in a variety of ways. It added an alternate, scarier dimension known as the dark world. This allowed Hyrulian adventurers to really feel as if they were taking on the darkness themselves. Second, they added the concept of pieces of heart (rather than whole heart containers). This made it a lot more fun to explore the world of Zelda because it became an extra challenge to find and collect all the heart pieces in order to get the maximum health possible. A Link to the Past also boasts a great amount of replay value because you could always make the game more difficult on yourself in the next run through by neglecting to find optional things that made the game easier. For instance, I have beaten the game without getting any pieces of heart or glass jars. This would make the game a lot more difficult, and a lot of fun to play through one more time.


3. Super Mario World

Super Mario World has really stood the test of time for me. Not only do I rank it as one of the best the SNES has to offer, but also as the greatest mario adventure of all time. For more of my reasoning behind that see: http://gameium.blogspot.com/2009/04/top-ten-mario-games.html Super Mario World was straight fun, and incredibly addicting. There was a lot to do in this title including finding all 96 exits, completing the special world, and finding all of the Yoshi coins. The fact that a game as awesome as Super Mario World comes in as number 3 is a real testament to how great the games were during the Super Nintendo’s run.

2. Chrono Trigger

Generally speaking, I hate games about time travel. Always, it seems, the hero goes back and time to stop some terrible evil. Of course, if he succeeds he would never have been able to go back in time, and therefore he would fail and the whole space time continuum would collapse! Okay, maybe I went a touch too far there, but I’m just saying, the whole scenario has been played out, and had been even at the time of Chrono Trigger’s release. But Chrono changed the formula on me. He didn’t want to stop something from happening in the past; he wanted to stop an apocalypse that occurred in the future. First, what a guy. If I knew about an apocalypse in the future, I would probably just shrug my shoulders and say that it’s the future people’s problem. Not Chrono; he grabbed his Kitana and went to business, and even paid the ultimate sacrifice in one part of the story. The gameplay in Chrono Trigger took the classic RPG formula, and added enough of its own elements to seem fresh. It further added a cast of colorful characters with their own strengths, weaknesses, and history (a trend that was not yet popular in video games) and a twisty-turny plot that would keep any fan interested for the duration of the game, if not longer.

1. Secret of Mana

Way To Go! Perhaps, I’m a nerd, but whenever I accomplish, well anything, this is the first thought that pops into my head... still. Secret of Mana’s congratulations for beating its latest boss. If that isn’t a sign of a game that has stuck with you, I don’t know what is. Secret of Mana was more than just a great game; it was one of those defining games that really showed what its console could do.

The hardest thing I’ve had to do thus far on gameium.blogspot.com is decide whether Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana deserved the top spot in this list. It was a very close contest. So close, in fact, that it was Secret of Mana’s Sound that managed to give it the edge it needed to take the top spot on the list. If there is one thing that Secret of Mana should be famous for, it’s the game’s musical score. I have never played a game with such beautiful music, which seemed crafted specifically for the game, and I doubt I ever will again. It seems like such a small thing, but this element really helped Secret of Mana stand out.

Secret of Mana was awesome for a variety of reasons. 1. You got to use a lot of different weapons, as well as a lot of different magics. 2. The story was incredible, the tragedy still sticks with me. When the Sprite tells his friends that he’s not going to kick the bucket, I couldn’t help but to feel for all the characters I had controlled during the course of the game. 3. You could ride a dragon. 4. You could play with two friends if you wanted. My sister even played this game with me a little. 5. The power-up ability of the weapons really made the game one of strategy as well as one of fighting. 6. There was a lot of replay value to the game: once you beat it you could always try to beat it without using magic. 7. The World was huge for its time.

There are so many things to like about Secret of Mana that it would take more than a single blog post to talk about them all. The gameplay, the visuals, the audio were all spot on in this game. Unfortunately, unlike the Zelda series which would continue to improve, Secret of Mana would prove to be the best the Mana series has yet had to offer.

Notable Exemptions:

Super Metroid

Not going to lie to you: I’m not a fan of shooters; especially Sci-fi shooters. This was a good game, but not one of my favorites. In fact, it’s probably not on my top twenty all time favorite SNES games. I know that’s going to make a lot of fanboys mad at me, but I can take it.

Final Fantasy IV

This game was excellent too. I loved it. It’s failure to be included in the list says more about how good the Super Nintendo was as a system, than it says about Final Fantasy IV.

Star Fox

This would have been number eleven on the list, and was just barely edged out by ActRaiser. The gameplay in Starfox was fast and addicting, and it’s a great add to any collection of SNES games.