Bethesda Doesn't Enjoy Being "Forced" into Mojang Lawsuit
- Thread starter Marshall Honorof
- Start date
This makes me think more and more that Mojang jumped the gun and should have waited at least until they went gold with both games. But this article would seem to suggest that Bethesda/Zenimax did the same thing handing the matter to their lawyers right off the bat. Now both are stuck on the roller coaster ride of law.canadamus_prime said:
This is the kind of thing that only really benefits the lawyers involved. I want Mojang to win but I know why they have to make the case.
Right on with that middle finger picture. Because of this, I'm not purchasing Skyrim. Bethesda/Zenimax and their lawyers can go f*** themselves.
I'm on bethesdas side even if its blatantly obvious that no one is going to be confused by this.
And next time any of you people meet someone whos boycotting skyrim for this irl, slap him.
And next time any of you people meet someone whos boycotting skyrim for this irl, slap him.
Way to show some decency there, yes, I removed my accusations of you being a troll, because it was rude, but no, just throw that in my face.Treblaine said:
"The Little Guy" is getting fair treatment. Should Bethesda just give up on pursuing it's trademark just because Mojang isn't as big as it? No, of course not, that would be completely retarded.
Mojang decided to trademark the word Scrolls for it's use, Bethesda is forced, by U.S. Trademark law, to contest that, or it loses it's trademark. Were this Microsoft or E.A. who had tried to trademark 'Scrolls', no-one would bat an eye when Bethesda/Zenimax went after them, but for some reason people think Mojang deserves a free pass? No, sorry, that isn't how it works.
What? Then the legal-fast-talk justification that only the deletion of a component in the name not being enough to differentiate being the issue isn't valid at all.Treblaine said:
Specially because "Scrolls of (insert anything here)" really makes it distinct.
Then again, trademark law (especially US trademark law) gives me headaches. Actually, US law regarding monetary compensation make my head hurts. I'm surprised everybody isn't suing everybody else all the time in order to be able to pay the suing they're getting from everybody else.
Oh... wait... I think they are.
You know what you don't see? Every studio that's produced a zombie game with dead in the title suing any single other studio for having a game with the word dead in the title. Bullshit Zenimax/Bethesda. If every damned zombie game on the planet can live in harmony along side each other, why can't Zenimax/Bethesda tolerate a game that uses the word Scrolls that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ELDER SCROLLS?! Because they're full of crap.
For your viewing pleasure I present a list of games with Dead in the title about zombies:
House of the Dead
Typing of the Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Dead Island
Dead Rising
Dead Rising 2
Trapped Dead
Dead Frontier
Dead Head Fred
Dead Nation
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead Trilogy
Isle of the Dead (Yeah cause that's not familiar)
Land of the Dead
Rock of the Dead
Touch the Dead
Urban Dead
Imagine that, not a single lawsuit by any of these publishers against any of the others about trademark infringement when they're all basically the same blasted game.
F*** Zenimax/Bethesda.
For your viewing pleasure I present a list of games with Dead in the title about zombies:
House of the Dead
Typing of the Dead
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Dead Island
Dead Rising
Dead Rising 2
Trapped Dead
Dead Frontier
Dead Head Fred
Dead Nation
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead Trilogy
Isle of the Dead (Yeah cause that's not familiar)
Land of the Dead
Rock of the Dead
Touch the Dead
Urban Dead
Imagine that, not a single lawsuit by any of these publishers against any of the others about trademark infringement when they're all basically the same blasted game.
F*** Zenimax/Bethesda.
How could Zenimax give up pursuing their trademark, they were never pursuing it in the first place. There trademark is for "The Elder Scrolls". And yes they should not vindictively hunt down upstart indie developers while they themselves are guilty of ding the same thing with "Rage" and "Streets of Rage".Harn said:
Bethesda/Zenimax are NOT FORCED TO DO A THING!
It is a bare faced lie to suggest that the trademark "The Elder Scrolls" is void simply because another trademark uses one of the words from their Trademark. Why are you repeating this lie?
"no-one would bat an eye when Bethesda/Zenimax went after them"
I would do more than bat an eyelid, I'd be amazed that two heavy-weights would go to court over such a frivolous issue. It makes sense big guys bullying the small one with their puny legal powers, but nor major corps. And don't be so presumptive that I would say such attempts are not bullying. It's wrong to hit someone vindictively, it's WORSE to hit someone much smaller than you.
"Mojang deserves a free pass"
Yes. Just like EVERYONE ELSE gets a "free pass" does he not have the freedom to use word from an English Dictionary?
Just like Techland is free to trademark 'Dead Island' without fearing Capcom suing using their 'Dead Rising' trademark.
You are the one being unreasonable here.
This thread has degenerated into the same old points being tossed back and forth and can be summed us as "Blub blub blub blub". Looking at you Trelbain. The fact of the matter is, the us trademark whathaveyou has told Zenimax it is an infringement which will cause many franchise issues (Or could, if it was anybody but Notch whom i don't see using this to break Bethsoft) but the law is the law. Arguing with it is stupid, and pointless and all i can interpret from it is people wanting to get their hate on regardless of the information. Notch's addition to Scroll's wouldn't change a thing and i feel he knew that. Can we drop the stupid now? I'd rather see another pony thread than a thread of "Well if the law says..." vs "I HATE BETHESDA POOR NOTCH".
From what I've seen, the capacity for dickish behaviour in copyright/IP law is more or less left to the discretion of the copyright holder. There are examples where the distinct lack of enforcement by copyright holders has actually led to some truly prolific output. The best example that springs to my mind is the so-called [a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac"]amen break.[/a] A six-second piece of drumming from a 1969 B-side ended up being the basis for at least two whole musical genres, and it could be argued that this happened primarily because The Winstons (the original artists and copyright holders) didn't sue people who sampled it. In a bizarre twist, the drum break itself was then sampled and copyrighted by a company that sells sample CDs.Frotality said:
You know it's Mojang who are the copyright trolls here right? You know they're the ones trying to get the legal right to stop Bethesda calling their games The Elder Scrolls: XXXXX don't you? I mean you have spent 5 minutes looking into this before making the decision to boycott Bethesda haven't you?screwvalve said:
I think whoever has the copyrights to the Dead Sea Scrolls should sue Bethesda because they can claim to have 1000+ years prior usage of the word Scrolls in their title.