"Also, College Bowl trademarking its name is representative of CBCI's attempt to monopolize the game. A lot of people are offended by that and don't wish to pay any sort of homage to CBCI." As Anthony mentioned in his post, it is not the trademarking of the name that really offends anyone. I would assume NAQT has also trademarked its name. I still refer to the game as a whole as "college bowl" when discussing the game with people outside of the quizbowl community (they tend to have actually heard of it). Trademarking is pretty much required these days to protect a company's commercial interests. I would futher assume (hope?) that even the most anti-CBCI person would agree that CBCI has the right to sell its own questions under its own name without fear of the name being used by a competing company (even if he or she thinks they are overpriced and of a low quality.) It's CBCI's claim that it holds a copyright in the game format that tends to tick people off. If I recall correctly, the claim encompasses any game comprised of tossups and bonuses. Previous threats of legal action on this basis have been aimed at circuit tournaments. As a result, many people have been turned off to the "College Bowl" format for reasons other than the questions themselves. That said, does anyone know the current position of the College Bowl folks? It seems they have been quiet as of late. It has been generally accepted by us circuit-folk that if NAQT or a similar organization were to attempt to be televised on a large scale (is this even a long-term goal of NAQT?), the threats would likely resume. Perhaps we have simply reached a detente of sorts. It should be said that CBCI has generally been more responsive to the concerns of the circuit regarding the content/quality of their questions; and as a result, there has been an improvement in the question quality. College Bowl as a product is still not for everyone, and that is probably the way it always will be. Although it is possible to write good shorter questions in a pyramidical style, I think most people will agree it is more difficult. (Some would argue NAQT has shown this can be done, but NAQT questions as compared to the CBCI Campus and RCT questions tend to average an entire extra sentence in length.) Question length may also have some effect on the (narrow) breadth of the College Bowl canon. They do, however, make the game faster paced, an aspect of the format I wnjoy. To be honest, I probably prefer playing on CBCI questions. I just wish these games could be against a larger portion of the quizbowl community.:) Well, I have rambled a bit too much as is. Later, Ross
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