Bethesda Says Mojang's Scrolls Infringes on Elder Scrolls Mark

[PoweD]

I love how people are complaining about not trademarking words when Notch just did that.

 

[sinterklaas]

'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' and 'Scrolls' are not similar in any way, especially since the first one is referenced to as Skyrim, and not The Elder Scrolls.

They have no case at all, Notch will win this easily.

Why not sue everyone using the word 'The' in their products -_-

 

[dancinginfernal]

So somehow this is Zenimax's fault according to some of you?

Look...Bethesda buys lawyers, they do all the legal work and make all the safeguards etc. and the lawyers just do their jobs. They actually need to have these safeguards and copyright rules even if you don't like them just because that is how it works. They probably will let Notch use it anyway.

They are ZeniMax's lawyers. I have already offered citations to my claims, I'm not blindly saying things. ZeniMax is Bethesda's parent company, and can sue even if Bethesda isn't up for it.

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

I'd like to say something intelligent, but all I can think is "Dickheads."

Fuck you Bethesda, that's lame as hell.

 

[w00tage]

Wait, since when does Bethesda have scrolls in their Elder Scrolls games? I played Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion, and I do not off the top of my head recall ever finding or seeing a single "scroll".

Edit: Follow up to this, anyone else notice that this happened AFTER Mojango got some money figures out in public? Who wants to bet me that this isn't a lawyer-driven scheme to get legal fees out of both Mojango and Bethesda?

 

[Pandabearparade]

Well, I have bought 3 Bethesda products and in my opinion, all three of them had no bugs at all.

That isn't a matter of opinion. In point of fact, both Fallout 3 and New Vegas had more bugs than a Big Mac tossed onto an ant hill, opinion just doesn't factor in.

That said, -my- opinion is that both games are in the top ten best of the past decade, and New Vegas would be in the top five. They were both just buggy as all hell upon release.

 

[cthulhumythos]

...i like bethesda more so i guess i will side with them.

 

[Feylynn]

Hey Bethesda, since you guys are so busy with Skyrim and shouldn't be spending time looking for all of the other people you need to sue I thought I'd help out and make a list.

Blizzard. This expansion the majorly infringed your copyright by making an entire SCROLLS profession!
Also, their popular and hotly debated Diablo games are infamous for having SCROLLS in them!
Did you see that? Blizzard made me use the word Infamous in response to their tomfoolery! You should call up Sucker Punch and tell them to help you sue.

Nexon published Maple Story which has many many SCROLLS that are used to upgrade items, in Oblivion I remember quite clearly that you could upgrade your items in that as well! Sometimes you could even upgrade them with SCROLLS.

Naughty Dog, now I haven't played Uncharted but I think I remember them using SCROLLS in one of their cut scenes once, you should put a stop to that shit.

Now a game development company is one thing but I have worse, my spies are giving me reports that all ages throughout history are actually spawned from copyright infringement of YOUR GAMES, they used time traveling SCROLLS to go back and write things of import on such SCROLLS!
Worse yet they did it ALL THE TIME.

I think Alexandria has as many as A BAJILLION copyright infringements in their library at one time.


Hope you get those criminals.
Love Fey-Lynn.

 

[Fursnake]

This is just such a stupid and petty move by Bethesda...

 

[brainslurper]

Yes bethesda, you own the word scrolls now, because it is inside of your game's title. Just like activation owns "Duty"

 

[brainslurper]

Snip

Plus one intranat for you sir

 

[Frostbite3789]

I hate Notch

Because hating someone for making a very successful indie game is totally justified...?

OT: Dear Bethesda,

Fuck off and die. First they pull the bullshit with Interplay claiming that the packaging of Interplay's FO and FO2 box confused people with FO3 (which was utter bullshit), now this?

Really?

The Interplay thing was legit. They were straight up trying to curb off the sales of Fallout 3. That's great they put out the original 2 and Tactics, but it's bogus to release something not too long after 3 called "The Fallout Trilogy" or whatever similar name they used.

Bethesda was well within their rights to have that changed. Interplay didn't have to sell them the Fallout license, but they did.

OT: I feel like if your lawyers are allowed to just send these kinds of letters out without any kind of consent from anyone who is high up in the company, or anyone at all, there is a problem.

...i like bethesda more so i guess i will side with them.

I seriously hope you are being sarcastic/joking.

If not, I just lost so much faith in humanity, it's unreal.

 

[Levethian]

Bethesda Game Studios ≠ Bethesda Softworks, let alone their lawyers. If we boycotted every product made by a company that enforces it's trademarks, then we wouldn't play many games.

Sure this is petty, but much of the Law is.

 

[RealDarkelfguy]

Well, it seems like everyone here is looking at this thing the wrong way. So I'm going to summarize what I've said elsewhere. Let's examine the issue at hand, shall we?

Notch trademarks the single word "Scrolls". "Scrolls" is a word used in Bethesda's trademark "The Elder Scrolls", so Bethesda attempts to stop Notch's trademark of the single word "Scrolls".

Let's rewind to an earlier trademark court debacle. Tim Langdell trademarks the single word "Edge" and then sues everyone who uses that word in their trademarks in the Game Industry. Tim Langdell sues EA for their trademark "Mirror's Edge", Tim Langdell sues Namco for their trademark "Soul Edge", Tim Langdell sues Cybernet for their trademark "Edge of Extinction", etc, etc...

Now let's fast forward to present day. Notch trademarks the single word "Scrolls". Logical next step, Notch sues Bethesda for their trademark "The Elder Scrolls". It doesn't matter how unlikely that is to happen, the fact remains it could happen. What we have here is Bethesda preemptively defending themselves from that ever happening. If Notch had trademarked "Scrolls: The Card Game" or "Scrolls: Any Subtitle Here", it's very likely that Bethesda would have left them alone and this whole legal mess would have never happened.

Bethesda isn't claiming they own the word "Scrolls", they're trying to stop Notch from claiming he owns the word "Scrolls". It's as simple as that. And personally, I don't think single words that are as common and generic as "Scrolls" should be allowed to be trademarked, so I'll side with Bethesda on this one.

 

[Vivicide]

If this is indeed an infringement then Bethesda is well within their right to sue the pants off of "Mojang". The idea that the creator of MineCraft gets the crap legally beaten out of him only makes it that much sweeter.

What the hell? Why did you put Mojang in quotation marks, as if it's not a real studio or something?

 

[minimacker]

I think Apple should now do this for it's App store, by copyrighting the word store.

 

[Judgement101]

I am 110% on Bethesda's side. Sue the hell out of 'em. (Mainly I'm hoping this cures the plague of Minecraft crap on YouTube)

 

[Judgement101]

Wait, since when does Bethesda have scrolls in their Elder Scrolls games? I played Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion, and I do not off the top of my head recall ever finding or seeing a single "scroll".

Edit: Follow up to this, anyone else notice that this happened AFTER Mojango got some money figures out in public? Who wants to bet me that this isn't a lawyer-driven scheme to get legal fees out of both Mojango and Bethesda?

Ummmmmm yes, Oblivion has a scroll in it called "The Elder SCROLL" and it is a scroll. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, do the Theives' Guild missions)