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they've made the usual mistake: blow the thing at the four winds. If they've left the KQ association at a bare minimum before releasing the game, they could probably get away with it.
I don't understand why people expend their talents and energies on a license that somebody else owns. Why does it have to be a King's Quest game? Make it Duke's Journey, or Nobleman's Search. But by starting with the idea that you can make an unofficial and unauthorized sequel to a game just because you loved the original games is asking for trouble.
Of course, the only reason that many amateur developers do this is because the considerable energy and money that Sierra/VU used to make KQ a recognizable brand can be used to promote and validate the independent efforts.
As much as the developers say that they do this because they "loved Series X!", they are also doing it because they doubt anyone would care if they just set out on their own to make an independent game without the name recognition of KQ (or Star Control, or Space Quest or what-have-you) behind it.
If you are going to spend time and energy on a game, for God's sake make sure you can. Explicitly. Silence is not necessarily consent. [NOTA: si riferisce al fatto che scrissero alla Vivendi riguardo al fatto che lo stavano producendo, senza ricevere risposta, e prendendolo come un silenzio-assenso.]