Bethesda sues Notch over the use of the word "Scrolls"

[amycus]

why does notch need to put out another game anyways? He should be focusing on getting minecraft out of the beta stage first...

 

Well he has a whole company now, Mojang. And it's not umusual that a game studio starts working on several projects simultaneously.

[TheStairsWolf]

This is most definetly not Bethesda's fault, to me this is just lawyers being asses. Either way it's a case that they have a snowflakes chance in a volcano of winning. I mean, you can't copyright individual words. If so, any game with ''The'' in it would be candidate for this crap.

 

Bethesda isn't this stupid, they know what would happen to their reputation if they're found to be bullying everyone's favorite indie company....

[ub3rman123]

This topic has drawn out a lot more people than I usually see on the forum. odd.

[uberness23]

It's polarizing. On the one hand, you have people who believe Notch is being petty and/or riding on Beth's success. On the other hand, you have Zenimax starting a seemingly frivolous lawsuit. Whatever your take on it, people need to realize that there likely wont be any MAJOR repercussions for this. Notch isn't going to be thrown out of Business. Beth isn't going to lose credibility. These suits happen on a regular basis.

 

Truthfully I think both sides are being somewhat petty.

[mindinavoid]

I will state but four things in brief, and they may have been stated prior. I'd also point out that it's the parent company Zenimax Media (and their lawyers, to be even more specific) and not Bethesda's developers (the people in charge of the creation of Skyrim and the intellectual property the lawyers are throwing a fit about) that are serving Mojang the legal beagle, but that's been stated. Numerous times, it seems.

 

Did I mention ZeniMax's lawyers are the ones you should be angry at, not the guys who made Morrowind/Oblivion/etc? By the way... (Not to put too fine a point on it, but people don't notice details as often as they should these days.)

 

1) Notch stated he still very much likes Bethesda Studios, and not to hate them for this. Honestly, I don't think you could ever make him angry, unless you stopped his upcoming wedding. Or shot him in the foot (and then repeatedly, because he'd likely call the first an accident).

 

Nicest man ever.

 

Regardless, don't go whiteknighting and OHEMGEE BUHTESDAH NOT GET MAH MOHNAY all over the place (for reasons I pointed out above.) Lawyers are lawyers.

 

I would point out a vaguely similar situation to That Guy With the Glasses being served a CnD over Tommy Wiseau's The Room by Wiseau's personal attorney despite it bringing in more money for the movie (because people wanted to purchase and watch this horrible, horrible piece of self-servicing kitsch themselves).

 

2) Shortly after mentioning this (and posting the picture of page 1 on his twitter) Notch retweeted someone stating that they went to the local GameStop and asked if they were taking preorders for the new Elder Scrolls game. The sales rep didn't know what he was talking about until he said Skyrim. (The last word tipped him off.) The lawsuit is on the grounds that people will mistake 'Scrolls' for 'The Elder Scrolls'.

 

Which is the name of an artifact that you only see ONCE in Oblivion, IF you do a certain NOT REQUIRED SIDE QUEST, I might add.

 

I predict in Skyrim you'll find a scrap of vellum someone used for a laundry list, turn it over and find out it's an Elder Scroll, then deliver it to the nearest garrison and get paid twenty gold before being sent off to have a screaming match with a dragon.

 

3) ZeniMax Media is the company serving the legal document to Notch, not Bethesda Game Studios. They're a bunch of awesome guys out of Maryland that name fictional stores after local real ones and ruins after awesome DnD-playing actors and make psychic guards that know when you've accidentally picked up a handbill, not a stable of slavering lawyers chomping at the bit to attack anything with the slightest similarity to their own IP. (I dare say this won't be mentioned enough.) ...retrospectively, maybe they programmed the lawyers with the 'vanilla' Oblivion guard script?

 

4)hlvr said earlier, this rather interesting thing:

 

"When determining if there is risk for confusion and risk that the usage leads to the apprehension that there is a connection between the one who uses the sign/mark/symbol and the owner of the trademark, one must value the overall impression of the sign/mark/symbol against the trademark. The trial is done from the overall impression of the average consumer."

 

I will reiterate something I said above:

 

"Notch retweeted someone stating that they went to the local GameStop and asked if they were taking preorders for the new Elder Scrolls game. The sales rep didn't know what he was talking about until he said Skyrim."

 

'The Elder Scrolls' is to the series what 'Call of Duty' is to Infinity Ward's products: an increasingly less related pre-title. A conditional, a modifier. I knew the game as Oblivion before I ever noticed The Elder Scrolls IV at the top, and connected it to the horrendously slow game with the awesome lore-base, Morrowind, which incidentally is also a The Elder Scrolls game.

 

It is entirely possible that there are grand numbers of people out there that don't even know those squiggly lines above the game title are words: they see them as nothing more than detailed errata, like the Daedric runes on the box art.

 

Whichever way this goes, I will still play Minecraft, and I will still get Skyrim. Oblivion is fun! And Skyrim will let me have a screaming match with a dragon and have it actually do something other than vent my frustrations at the screen.

 

I just hope I don't accidentally steal anythSTOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM

 

(Yes, I do consider that brief. I like to write. And read. Oh, look, more guards to punch! I will be quite ready to punch dragons.)

Edited August 9, 2011 by mindinavoid

[mindinavoid]

Pardon, browser didn't respond. Double-post, disregard. Edited August 9, 2011 by mindinavoid

[NorthwindGrey]

Zeni-max guards run up to Notch

 

Z-Guard: Stop, you violated the law, pay us a large chunk of money or go to court, you're stolen names are now, FORFEIT!

 

Pay Loads of Money

Go to Court <----

Resist Arrest

 

================

By the way, I don't know if this has been stated before, but Zenimax owns Bethesda, so Bethesda cannot call off the lawsuit, they can try to reason with Zenimax, but they can't stop it.

 

I bet most of the Bethesda developers are angry at Zenimax for this rash decision, and if I'm wrong, I will eat myself.

 

Tasty.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Shadow Of Doom

[northwind221]

Then I think the people who found the "Dead Sea SCROLLS" should sue the makers of The Elder SCROLLS because of the possible mistake people will make thinking that Elder scrolls are really the "Dead sea scrolls"

 

Honestly I have never heard of anyone calling Elder Scrolls just "Scrolls" ES or Elder scrolls is what I have always heard from my friends. Its about the only game that I know of that doesn't get put into a 1 word name. Other than Dragon age.

 

Also anyone who makes that stupid mistake derives to get there money taken away from them.

[ecksile]

I was unaware that you could copyright a "WORD"...I always thought words were "PUBLIC DOMAIN" and belonged to "EVERYONE"...especially ones as old as the word "SCROLL"...society :wallbash: ... -_-' ...*climbs back under large rock* Edited August 9, 2011 by ecksile

[kitsuneguy20]

Q: what do you call a group of lawyers up to their necks in cement?

 

A: not enough cement