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

[Tchos]

"It doesn't say anything about them having the same content, game elements, similar look, or anything unless you count 'shows serious visual, phonetic and conceptual similarities'..."

Two different ways of saying the same thing, so I don't understand the confusion.

They are not the same thing. That passage is clearly talking about the word "Scrolls" in the logo. Games don't have phonetic similarities. Words do.

 

It really isn't over the word Scrolls. If the proposed new game was a football game, or a car-race game (for example) then there wouldn't be an issue -- TES legal team would have no traction with that even if they thought to try it on. So it is ultimately about possible confusion between the two.

Mojang's game Scrolls is a collectible card battling game, not an RPG. It can't be about the game. It's about the name.

[roquefort]

"Mojang's game Scrolls is a collectible card battling game, not an RPG. It can't be about the game. It's about the name."

 

Well it's a given that there wouldn't be a debate about this, or threats of legal action, if the word 'scrolls' wasn't involved, so yes it is, in this instance, about the name.

 

The point I was getting at is that,in the wider world, trademarks cover a particular type of product or service, and there is only a violation of trademark law if the contested products or services are similar, so in this case the argument, should it get to court (which I doubt), would be about the game and its resemblance or non-resemblance to Elder Scrolls, and the court would have to consider if the public might believe that Scrolls was a product of Zenimax Media.

 

I'm not familiar with Mojang's game Scrolls and so can't really form an opinion one way or the other, but from what you've said it sounds like the complainant doesn't have much of a case and is simply trying it on; or maybe just putting down a marker to indicate to anybody who might make a serious & deliberate attempt to dilute or compromise the trademark that it won't be tolerated.

[LeviTheMetalGuy]

this just in; bethesda and zenimax is a money grubbing corperation

[ErelasRyAlcar]

Hmm, did a bit of Trademark investigation for personal use a couple of years ago myself. Not an expert by far, and I'm unsure how Swedish trademark law might differ from the US Trademark law, but, that said, I'm pretty sure the US and Sweden have a treaty that keeps them on fairly even ground, and you sure as all "heck" couldn't trademark merely the word "Scrolls" in the US. The Elder Scrolls, yes, just Scrolls....you'd have to have some further involvement there, like a fancy font that only you use with Scrolls, and then, only the two combined (or something that looked amazingly similar) would be able to be trademarked.

[CyrusFyre]

Well I was just looking at the two logos to see if it was a "your logo looks too much like my logo" thing and I'm gonna say not really. They don't look much alike at all in fact. And I agree with what ErelasRyAlcar said, I've never heard of a single word out of a title being trademarked, at least not in the US. Could be, as some have suggested, someone attempting a scam but if that were the case you'd think Bethesda or Zenimax would have stepped up to clear this all up by now. I don't know. Will wait to see what happens. It's a little disheartening to see a much loved company falling hard down the road of money grubbing like EA and Square Enix... Edited August 12, 2011 by CyrusFyre

[EnternalShade]

LAME

 

just

 

LAME

[sharku67]

They have the right to sue Notch.

Zenimax is doing the right thing by protecting the name of its trademarked products.

Edited August 12, 2011 by sharku67

[imapoorman]

I think that the law suit is regarding the potential confusion that the similar names will generate, not the use of the word "scrolls" ion the title.

For example, if a company made a game called "New Vegas", which, for the sake of argument, is nothing like FNV. Let's say it's like Roller Coaster Tycoon, where you can build your own custom Vegas strip and collect revenue. The use of the phrase New Vegas would be grounds for suing in that people will think that like Warcraft to WoW, this is just a spin off of the core game. Spin-offs Aren't necessarily anything like the core game, so in reality, the subject matter of the game is irrelevant. Personally, I don't think it will go through, but it is important for large games that required, literally, years of preparation to try to knock off any potential threats to their profits.

[CassiPie]

I'm a fan of Bethesda games, but some of the blind fanboy defenses I see for this bullshit is just nausea inducing.

 

Zenimax is clearly in the wrong, here. They're simply being litigious douches for the sake of it.

[Ayegor]

I say that Bethesda does have a right to sue Notch. However, to do so is sort of petty and MIGHT decrease their reputation with their followers/customers/gamers.

I could see why Zenimax would sue Notch, for the sake of confusing the games with eachother, which thus might cut into Zenimax's profits for The Elder Scrolls, but it's a very slim chance.

Think of it this way: if someone were to write a book called The Sword of Strength, and made a series out of it, a very successful one, at that, and then some other guy wrote a whole different book called Strength, and then the first guy sued him because the name of the books might get confused and might cut into his profit.

 

Do you follow?

 

In conclusion, the decision was both a smart one and a dumb one. I will definetly still play games from Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax (hehe, I've already pre-ordered Skyrim on Steam) but this was really petty of them to do.