Dragons, edition 3.5. Third-party publishers had very little warning of the update and so many companies were stuck with books that were out-of-date before even reaching their audience. Wizards did not offer any update for the d20 trademark. Exacerbating the problem, the market was suffering a severe glut of low-quality material published under the d20 label, as many publishers, both petty and established, rushed poorly-written adventures and expansions to print to try to take advantage of d20's popularity, ultimately devaluing the brand's value among consumers. Between these two crises, many d20 publishers went out of business or left the field, but most of those who remained abandoned the d20 trademark entirely, publishing instead under the OGL. Publishers realized that they could publish d20 games that did not depend upon Wizards of the Coast's core books, and publishers even began to create direct competitors to D&D using the OGL. Trademark license Because Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular role-playing game in the world, many third-party publishers of the 2000s produced products designed to be compatible with that game and its cousin, d20 Modern. Wizards of the Coast provided a separate license allowing publishers to use some of its trademarked terms and a distinctive logo to help consumers identify these products. This was known as the d20 System Trademark License (d20STL). The d20STL required publishers to exclude character-creation and advancement rules, apply certain notices, and adhere to an acceptable content policy. D20STL products were also required to clearly state that they require the core books from Wizards of the Coast for use. All d20STL products also had to use the OGL to make use of d20 System open content. However, products that only use the OGL are not bound by these restrictions; thus publishers were able to use the OGL without using the d20STL, and by including their own character-creation and advancement rules allow them to function as complete standalone games. With the release of the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2008, Wizards of the Coast revoked the original d20STL, replacing it with a new license specifically for D&D, known as the Game System License. The terms of this license are similar to the d20STL, but there is no associated OGL or Open Content, and the 4th-edition SRD merely lists the items and terms which may be used in licensed products. This did not affect the legal standing of