As well as appropriated and renamed - looking at you, lacrosse… 
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She could ban them from using any part that’s described in the book
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That too, but apart from the name, the game was specifically and with details described in the book that would give her quite the leverage, while they could do something similar they could be forced to prove that its not based on her ideas
People make video games that are pretty much exact rip-offs of other video games, but you think Rowling would have legal rights to rules for a sport that doesn’t involve flying because it was inspired by something she wrote that does? The name is pretty much the only thing I think she could conceivably object to.
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If anything, I think she owns the version where the players fly on brooms. Running around with a broom is probably a different game.
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Good sentiment, well expressed.
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Yeesh, I make enough of an arse of myself trying to play actual sports. Not likely to get involved in a sport that has a stupid, badly imagined game as a starting point.
It’s like if soccer had a game winning marble. Most of the players try to score goals, but if one of them finds the marble somewhere the game is over and everyone else’s efforts were pointless. No thank you.
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Actually, that might be helpful sometimes. It’s better than pks…
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People who pretend to play pretend sport decide to pretend someone else invented it.
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Wow. That’s a lot of dumb all around.
If someone tried to start “The Quidditch World Series” or some other organization using that title, described bits of equipment as The Golden Snitch, or used other specific language from the books, then yes, JKR could sue over IP right infringement. If a bunch of people wanted to dress up in robes, stick broomsticks between their legs, and run around in fields chasing an unnamed (or otherly-named) gold orb, there’s really nothing she can do except suck it up. (I suspect she could try to sue, but copyright laws aren’t on her side for that.)
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If people are actually playing something and putting effort into it, I’d suggest it’s gone from pretend to real.
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What these people are doing may be called “Quidditch” (by them) but it isn’t Quidditch. Actual Quidditch involves actually flying around on magical brooms, which for the likes of you and me is hard to do, so whether we like it or not we’ll have to leave it to wizards or, at least, Hollywood types with a well-funded special-effects department at their disposal.
In spite of this, whatever pretend-Quidditch ends up being called, there’s no getting away from the fact that it was originally inspired by the eponymous sport in the Harry Potter books. This is obviously something that pretend-Quidditch enthusiasts will have to live with unless they plan to do some serious Ministry-of-Truth-style history rewriting. If people believe that the Harry Potter franchise is now indelibly tainted by Ms Rowling’s odious views on transgender people, renaming pretend-Quidditch isn’t going to make a huge difference because the association will still be there for as long as pretend-Quidditch itself exists.
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I just think it’s too bad there isn’t a spell in the HP universe that changes an evil person to good (or is there?).
Rid Rowling of her corrupted thoughts, problem solved.
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Nope.
You can’t copyright ideas, trademark ideas, or even patent ideas like what Quidditch is. They won’t have to prove they based it off anything else. Heck, they can say it’s based on her ideas. She can’t do anything if they change the names and file the serial numbers off. It’s why we have like 9 codes of football and five different variations of lawn tennis.
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I suspect they won’t have much trouble coming up with a better name.
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It still says they don’t endorse her and her transphobic views though. I don’t know why you would disregard that; it’s not Orwellian, it’s what actually counts here.
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Or baseball
Although baseball evolved from rounders, then later MLB denied their heritage and presumed the sport to have been invented out of thin air.
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