The MIT Zork/Dungeon isn’t owned by Activision. One could probably dress it lika a fan-fiction spinning off that?
1 Like
No individual is going to be in a position to seriously litigate the nuances of the difference between the Infocom Zork IP and the MIT Zork IP, though – in practice, you’re either going to get a cease and desist letter or not, and if you do, you’re going to cease and desist. And the trigger for getting such a letter would probably be if an automated search for typical Zork-y terms – Zork, grue, GUE, etc. – turns up your thing. So to my mind, you’d either just file off all the serial numbers up front, or go ahead with the game you want to make while accepting that there’s a small chance you’ll need to file said serial numbers off later.
4 Likes
There’s no law against allusion, of course, which I would say is the better call anyway
At least until I release my upcoming game, Zork Zero II
4 Likes
I’ve made a ZIL-version of the earliest known Zork (from early summer of 1977). No cease and desist, yet…
5 Likes
I would love to play that game if it is well done!
It is always good to be careful but I found all these on IFDB:
Zork LXIX: The Great Underground Hot Dog
Zork N plus 9
zork, buried chaos
Zork: A Troll’s-Eye View
Zork: The Cavern of Doom
Zorkian Stories 1: G.U.E.
Realistic Zork
AFAIK, no one got sued 
BTW, Stefano Canali got permission to convert “Return to Zork” to a text adventure.
However, it might not be eligible for IFComp because the IFTF at least used to be very strict on copyrights, which makes sense. However, I hope that Spring Thing will not officially be owned by IFTF so they could have a less worried approach to it.
5 Likes
The current IFComp rules are friendly to fanfic games. Although I would avoid using any Infocom source code in an IFComp entry.
In fact no – the “Zork” trademark lapsed twenty years ago. (Weirdly, though, the “Return to Zork” trademark is still active. Not the other titles, just that one.)
“Infocom” as a trademark also lapsed, and has been picked up by a series of unrelated parties for apparently trivial reasons. There’s a whole story there which I won’t get into.
16 Likes
Would you entertain sharing a link so one might read about it themselves? Assuming it exists and also assuming it isn’t an inconvenience. Please?
3 Likes
I don’t know if there is anything newer, the last discussion was just a few months ago, Infocom IP Ownership 2022 where you can find links to Andrew’s detailed blog posts.
5 Likes
Thank you!
3 Likes
Hi everyone! This got me curious…I’m building a show called “The Great Underground Empire”, doing Parsely style text adventure role playing games. All the adventures are being written by me, so aside from the clear homage to Zork in the title, I’m not infringing any other copyrights.
However, I was intending to have a Patreon and profit from the show. I didn’t think Infocom would care about something that small on such an old game, but this thread made me worry.
Any idea if they would object and C&D me? I love the title but I don’t want to invest time and money in it only to be ordered to change or stop.
Thanks for your help!
3 Likes
This is not something I would worry about. There’s an “Eaten By a Grue” podcast, and while I don’t think they have a Patreon, it would be a stretch to imagine that any lawyer would tell them not to.
(However, I am not a lawyer.)
(I was curious and did a trademark search. It does not appear that Infocom or Activision ever trademarked “Great Underground Empire”.)
6 Likes
…the graduate mechanical engineering puzzles…
Lots of interesting things that can be done with Zork, and even before you get to the 90s stuff it’s pretty hard to make it all hang together, because it was never really expected to.
3 Likes
Awesome, thanks very much! I’ll check out that podcast too. I really like The Great Underground Empire as a name, and made and commissioned a lot of thematic artwork and social media banners and stuff for it, lol. 
3 Likes
No, definitely not too old. I think Zork aged well, in other words it can compete with modern games imho.
But you must create something substantially different or else it would be pretty boring for everyone who has played the original.
3 Likes
To jump into the conversation, regardless of whether you use the Zork name or not, there is absolutely room for the collect-athon text adventure style.
Having a major emphasis on the puzzles over the narrative can be very cathartic. Having just recently gone through the zork trilogy and enjoying them thoroughly, flaws not withstanding (looking at you Zork 2 bank puzzle!), I think what is most important when making that style is that you create a nice hub with which to branch out into.
One of the weird issues I faced with Zork 3 was that there was no centralized base to call home and it felt very lacking because of it.
I am curious to see what you come up with and cant wait to see your progress!
3 Likes
I tend to recommend an abundance of caution around potentially infringing intellectual property… but if I were doing it, my non-lawyer-self would be okay with naming a show that wasn’t using Infocom IP after a never-trademarked phrase associated with an Infocom game, like West of House or Great Underground Empire or Eaten by a Grue.
5 Likes
Wow… This jumped up again!
2 Likes
I think this is a great idea. However, you’re going to have to dream up a lot of “zork” new stuff in the process.
I dont see this as bad. but it is a challenge.
4 Likes
I doubt Infocom could have trademarked “Grue” even if they wanted, seeing as it was copied from Jack Vance.
3 Likes
Or you release a game anonymously through Tor or similar. 
3 Likes