So we know that not only do FFG take no action against 3rd party manufacturers they seem to actively encourage the use of anything except other ships to enhance our games. So a person I know who has been making templates for a while and is fine tuning his tokens before putting those into full production has also designed some amazing acrylic manouver dials, he did this originally just for his own ships ( a bomber list he was running at the time ) they were very nice, black with a tie pilot helmet on the the backside and all the correct manoeuvres, even had them painted green white and red, my question would be

If he wanted to produce more to sell to the public how would he be able to make them distinguishable from each other without getting his ass sued? He assumes that disney would send in the big guns if he had the ships name, or even just a image of the ship engraved on the back, what could he do that would let you and your opponent know who a dial belongs to and still be cool enough to want to replace the cardboard ones with?

if I were him, I'd contact the FFG Legal team and politely ask.

You could always go the easy route and label them:

X, Y, YT, HWK, TF, TI, LAMBDA, etc.

And I realize this is somewhat underhanded - but lots of other people do this on "upload your own art" sites - don't advertise them with the logos but SHIP them with the logos or the words, there is really not a whole lot Disney could do anyways if they ever even managed to notice.

And the reason I think FFG doesn't care is because they don't SELL any of those aftermarket items themselves.

If they did I bet they would take more issue with the manufacture of said items. But as it stands now, you HAVE to buy their movement dials to get a ship, so they could care less what you use after that.

Only issue is, they wouldn't be tournament legal.

Aren't there 3rd party range and movement templates with imperial and rebel symbols on them? If ANYTHING is TM and protected it would be those.

Then again I have seen some sites use really generic terminology on their site, like "space fighters" and the like. Maybe some have been contacted by Disney/FFG?

Emailing FFG would probably be best.

Though I would guess an image of a ship is harder to "protect" than a name, unless of course he copies it right off of somewhere...

An outline of a ship, in a recognizable format I would guess would be generic enough?

Only issue is, they wouldn't be tournament legal.

Why not? According to the tourney rules:

Why not? According to the tourney rules:

Yes you can use 3rd party templates and tokens nothing is said about 3rd party dials however. This is again a case of just because the rules don't say it, doesn't mean it's allowed.

Also there's no way possible that I as a TO would allow a 3rd party dial to be used, because you'd have to check every dial and compare it to a standard dial to make sure it's correct.

Buddy of mine makes custom gaming boxes for various games. The last one he made for an FFG game had the name of the game on top and the contacted him to "cease and desist". They were polite about it however, and suggested some alternative wordings.

Their legal teams seems nice, so I'd echo others above me, and suggest you contact them.

Contacting the legal team is a good advice. I would also add that the best response would be one in writing, not something like "Sure, we don't mind" over the phone.

The more money is involved or the bigger your business grows, the more you want things on paper and as bulletproof as possible.

I would point out that litko already makes genetic maneuver dials. They're kinda cumbersome and not ship specific though.

Only issue is, they wouldn't be tournament legal.

Why not? According to the tourney rules:

Range Rulers, Tokens, and Maneuver Templates

Minor variations in the printing process and the existence of third-party

products may cause slight disparities in the measurements of some rulers

and templates. Before a tournament match begins, any player may request

that a single range ruler and/or set of maneuver templates be shared for

the duration of the match. Both players must agree on the set of maneuver

templates to be used, as well as which side of the range ruler to use. The TO

will have the final say in any decision. Third-party tokens may also be used,

provided they are clearly recognizable and both players agree to their use

"Range Rulers, Tokens, and Maneuver Templates" does not include dials