According to Ryan Dancey’s post on the OGL mailing list, companies taking advantage of the D20 license will soon have to stay away from doing D20 miniature figures:
When the STL was drafted, there was no firm commitment to proceed with a D&D-based miniatures game. Internally, the business managers all agreed that if a bunch of companies wanted to release miniatures using the d20 logo, no harm would come to WotC, since WotC’s focus would probably be on basic characters and monsters in support of D&D.
However, since Chainmail has evolved to the point where it bears the d20 logo, WotC thinks it needs to exclude the use of that logo on products that would compete with Chainmail miniatures. There is some concern that the business of Chainmail (which is really selling lead, not paper) could be “hijacked” by a publisher that created a parallel line of miniatures and support material. To avoid the potential downstream problem, WotC just wants to nip the issue in the bud now.
So, you can ride the wave of the D20 System for your RPG products, but don’t be messin’ with their skirmish combat figures.
Iron Crown Assets Sold
After a lengthy stay in bankruptcy court, the inventory and intellectual property of Iron Crown Enterprises was sold off to the highest bidder. Reportedly, one John R. Seal of London coughed up $78,000. That’s a steal when you consider that the estimated worth of the goods was estimated at $1.95 million.