PsyckoSama Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Also taken from the NMA site, this time without the psychotic fanboi ranting. On October 16, 2009, Interplay Entertainment Corp. (“Interplay”) answered the lawsuit filed by Bethesda Softworks LLC (“Bethesda”) in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on September 8, 2009. In conjunction with its Answer, Interplay asserted Counter-Claims against Bethesda seeking affirmative relief, including for Breach of Contract, Declaratory Judgment, and other relief. Interplay alleges Bethesda breached the terms of Asset Purchase Agreement related to the sale of the FALLOUT® intellectual property to Bethesda. Interplay’s counter-suit alleges that Bethesda interfered with Interplay’s business, including distribution of the previously released FALLOUT ®, FALLOUT® 2, and FALLOUT® Tactics games, by attempting to terminate Interplay’s distribution rights, among other acts. Interplay asks the Court to decide whether Bethesda’s attempt to terminate Interplay’s rights under the Asset Purchase Agreement results in nullification of the entire contract such that the Parties should be returned to the status quo under their former Exclusive Licensing Agreement. If the Exclusive Licensing Agreement is restored, Bethesda may owe royalties based upon sales of its FALLOUT ® 3 title. Interplay also seeks a declaration from the Court that it has not infringed upon the FALLOUT® mark and that it has satisfied the terms of a Trademark Licensing Agreement it signed with Bethesda related to Interplay’s production of a massively-multiplayer online game. For its part, Bethesda seeks to cancel the Trademark License Agreement, which conditionally allows Interplay to use the FALLOUT ® brand in conjunction with its currently-in-production massively multiplayer online game. Bethesda claims that Interplay breached the trademark license agreement because it allegedly failed to commence full scale development and satisfy a funding requirement within a specified time frame. Bethesda also seeks to terminate Interplay’s rights with respect to Interplay’s distribution of the FALLOUT® back catalog of games. Interplay disputes these allegations. Although the potential damages are currently unknown, if Bethesda ultimately prevails, Bethesda could obtain a damages award and cancel the trademark license agreement. Interplay could lose its license to use the FALLOUT® brand with respect to its massively multiplayer online game, and also its right to distribute the pre-existing FALLOUT® titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Looking forward to watching a company struggling to accumulate 35m in investment going up against zenimax :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyckoSama Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Looking forward to watching a company struggling to accumulate 35m in investment going up against zenimax :) Looking forward to seeing Bethesda get their come uppance for breaking the law. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nexus Set Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Yeah, lawsuits are all about financial muscle, i guess. sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5ivexxxxx Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 @ Bethesda: But yeah. I doubt Interplay will take down Beth. And if that does happen, it's bad news for us Fallout 3 modders, and everyone who mods Oblivion and Morrowind, but good news for them craaaazy fanboys over at NMA and those sites. Go Bethesda!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyckoSama Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 @ Bethesda: But yeah. I doubt Interplay will take down Beth. And if that does happen, it's bad news for us Fallout 3 modders, and everyone who mods Oblivion and Morrowind, but good news for them craaaazy fanboys over at NMA and those sites. Go Bethesda!! They're not trying to take down Beth, they're trying to get Fallout back, which won't matter in the long run for 2 more games as Beth still retains the right to make Fallout 4 and 5. All it means is that Interplay will get royalties. Oh, and considering how you just put it... you're just as Crazy a Fanboi as the folks at NMA... you're just a Beth fanboi. Yeah, lawsuits are all about financial muscle, i guess. sad. Its also about how far you're willing to take it. Interplay has more to loose so its quite possible they might be willing to divert the entire 35 million from V13's development temporarily into legal costs and hope to recomp it in damages and royalties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysus Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 that whole situation is a bit more complex... interplay bought rights to create that mmofrpgthing fallout a few years back and had a distinct time to create it and start reaping in profitz otherwise beth would gain all rights... the whole contract which went through some courts yet is rather obscurenevertheless zenimax officially sucks... they are like the lil brat of EA, at least behavior wise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyckoSama Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 that whole situation is a bit more complex... interplay bought rights to create that mmofrpgthing fallout a few years back and had a distinct time to create it and start reaping in profitz otherwise beth would gain all rights... the whole contract which went through some courts yet is rather obscurenevertheless zenimax officially sucks... they are like the lil brat of EA, at least behavior wise... They never bought the rights, they retained them when they sold the property as a condition of sale, along with the rights to sell Fallout/2/Tactics. They met the time table needed to begin development of V13 and Beth is still giving them crap about it, along with Beth's illegal attempts to block them from selling the original Fallout games. And yeah, zenimax does suck. So bad the BBB has them listed as an F company and Beth itself is a D-. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csb Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 What part of alleged don't people get? Bethesda didn't break the law until a court of law determines such is the case. It is equally likely that Interplay is culpable and often suits/counter-suits like this are settled out of court. My solution? Get rid of 9 out of 10 lawyers and close the law schools for 10 years (I'm sure super mutants can accommodate that :D ). We have too darn many of them. Maybe then this whole sue-happy culture will go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyckoSama Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 What part of alleged don't people get? Bethesda didn't break the law until a court of law determines such is the case. It is equally likely that Interplay is culpable and often suits/counter-suits like this are settled out of court. Beth is as guilty as sin. They're just not liable until the court determines it. This isn't criminal court so "Innocent until proven guilty" isn't the issue. Its the preponderance of the evidence, IE: Who's most at fault. Interplay is run by a bonehead, true, but it looks like they've been following their side of the contract and while Beth has a valid (abet minor) complaint about the name of the Fallout Trilogy being potentially misleading (to total idiots), they could have easily vetoed the name Fallout Trilogy in the packaging approval stage but didn't, they've been jerking Interplay around at every opportunity. My solution? Get rid of 9 out of 10 lawyers and close the law schools for 10 years (I'm sure super mutants can accommodate that :D ). We have too darn many of them. Maybe then this whole sue-happy culture will go away. Congratulations, you just made the single dumbest statement I've heard all day. I'd say all week, but some of the all caps ranting in the Part 1 of this was a bit crazed, even by my relaxed standards of mental stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts