Bethesda Doesn't Enjoy Being "Forced" into Mojang Lawsuit

[2012 Wont Happen]

Bethesda, call the lawyers off Notch already. You need the help stomping Interplay's balls into the ground over FOOL.

Remember that one country that refuses to believe what The Pirate Bay is doing is illegal?

That's because TPB isn't doing anything illegal. But that's for another thread entirely.

In our country what they do is illegal. You cannot operate a torrent tracker linking to illegal content in the United States.

 

[Sparrow]

Bethesda isn't being forced into anything. Who pays these lawyers? On whose behalf is the suit filed? What a steaming loaf. Seems Bethesda is just another little EA corporate factory in the making.

Vlatko Andonov, president of the company, most likely pays these people. Not any of the folks who worked on Skyrim or Fallout 3. That is something I wish people would understand. Todd Howard doesn't give a rats ass about all this Scrolls bullshit, especially if this article is anything to go by.

 

[SilentHunter7]

Just feel like pointing this out: Everyone who says the public is not dumb enough to confuse the two is vastly overestimating the stupidity of the public. Afterall, people actually bought this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-3ApJvMODc&feature=relmfu].

Bethesda isn't being forced into anything. Who pays these lawyers? On whose behalf is the suit filed? What a steaming loaf. Seems Bethesda is just another little EA corporate factory in the making.

Don't be a fool. Did you read that article at all? If Bethesda doesn't defend their mark in this case, any lawyer be able to drive a truck over them legally if they try to defend their mark against anyone else. You can't pick and choose your battles.

 

[artanis_neravar]

1. Yes, but this case is going to be tried in sweden, and the laws there are different. PLUS without going into the nitty gritty, YES they can be considered close, YES there is a case simply because if their wasn't it wouldn't even reach the court room, it would get thrown out. But ruling on either one sets a precedent, and I highly doubt any court would rule on a single word from another title, think about what that would mean for everything else in the world.
If it was this word, and the games were pretty much identical, yeah, THEN there is an issue. The european courts are very protective of the public, but they certainly avoid nannying them.

And they will take US trademark law into effect, because they are also protected in European countries.

2. Yes, we do know there wasn't, because believe it or not their are case reports available to the public. How has anything Notch done attempted to sick the fans on bethesda? They are suing him, and it's his discretion to release it or not. He has been quite amicable whereas bethesda has not to this point. That's their choice.

By challenging Bethesda to a Quake match that he knew they couldn't accept. By making public offers the Bethesda can't accept without going through the court.

3. Again the law is that if a trademark is not defended it is basically assumed in the eyes of the law that said trademark no longer exists. the title 'Scrolls' is not that trademark. They have been over-zealous.
Additionally, I am fairly certain this is not the only game with scrolls somewhere in the title... though I would have to look into it I'm sure I've heard of at least one other game where the word appears.

But The Elder Scrolls is that trademark, the trademark office said it was close enough to cause confusion, and therefore Bethesda has to defend their trademark (The Elder Scrolls) or lose it.

 

[Treblaine]

"[Regarding] THE ELDER SCROLLS marks, the applicant has merely deleted the term ELDER from the registered mark. The mere deletion of wording from a registered mark may not be sufficient to overcome a likelihood of confusion."

I don't know if they think WE are stupid or they themselves are stupid.

BUT THIS IS TWO WORDS DELETED!

And the utter GALL to accuse Notch of simply deleting two word from a title rather than the far more innocent and more likely scenario that HE USED AN ENGLISH WORD that happened to be part of the title of another game.

And I would like to add, Notch has offered to Zenimax to sell his game as "Scrolls: [Subtitle]" but they won't accept EVEN THAT!

And Literally not a single game from that series has just been sold under the name "The Elder Scrolls"

The first game in the series was "The Elder Scrolls: Arena"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls

Every game has been entirely sold and advertised based on the subtitle like "Morrowwind" "Oblivion" and "Skyrim"

 

[Apollo45]

Oh, it'll be in Sweden? Bethesda has no chance. Swedish law is very free, especially on arts and copyright. Remember that one country that refuses to believe what The Pirate Bay is doing is illegal? Yeah, that's Sweden.

That might be why they're doing it in Sweden; Bethesda needs to at least attempt to protect their copyright, but the big shots really don't see it as the type of copyright infringement that needs to be seen the entire way through, so as a result they're doing it in Sweden so they probably won't win but they'll have defended their copyright anyway.

I might be grasping at straws here, but that's my best-case-scenario hope at this point/

 

[grigjd3]

This article has clearly met escapist magazine's requirement for the low word count but also clearly does not provide us with enough information. I demand better writing, Marshall Honorof! Seriously, there are some gaping holes in this story that need to be filled out.

 

[SnakeCL]

"[Regarding] THE ELDER SCROLLS marks, the applicant has merely deleted the term ELDER from the registered mark. The mere deletion of wording from a registered mark may not be sufficient to overcome a likelihood of confusion."

I don't know if they think WE are stupid or they themselves are stupid.

BUT THIS IS TWO WORDS DELETED!

And the utter GALL to accuse Notch of simply deleting two word from a title rather than the far more innocent and more likely scenario that HE USED AN ENGLISH WORD that happened to be part of the title of another game.

And I would like to add, Notch has offered to Zenimax to sell his game as "Scrolls: [Subtitle]" but they won't accept EVEN THAT!

And Literally not a single game from that series has just been sold under the name "The Elder Scrolls"

The first game in the series was "The Elder Scrolls: Arena"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls

Every game has been entirely sold and advertised based on the subtitle like "Morrowwind" "Oblivion" and "Skyrim"

I like how you quoted what the US trademark office said, and not what Zenimax said.

You want to be mad? Be mad at the trademark office, not Bethsoft or Zenimax.

 

[Knight Templar]

So... That one guy who trademarked "Edge" had a case after all? Or am I totally missing the point here?

You have to use the trademark.
He didn't use the word edge, and thus had nothing he needed to protect.

 

[4173]

Oh noes! A large company is in a news story. They must be eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!

 

[6SteW6]

Whelp, there goes my idea for a game based around Extreme scroll sawing. Thanks Bethesda!

 

[Treblaine]

"[Regarding] THE ELDER SCROLLS marks, the applicant has merely deleted the term ELDER from the registered mark. The mere deletion of wording from a registered mark may not be sufficient to overcome a likelihood of confusion."

I don't know if they think WE are stupid or they themselves are stupid.

BUT THIS IS TWO WORDS DELETED!

And the utter GALL to accuse Notch of simply deleting two word from a title rather than the far more innocent and more likely scenario that HE USED AN ENGLISH WORD that happened to be part of the title of another game.

And I would like to add, Notch has offered to Zenimax to sell his game as "Scrolls: [Subtitle]" but they won't accept EVEN THAT!

And Literally not a single game from that series has just been sold under the name "The Elder Scrolls"

The first game in the series was "The Elder Scrolls: Arena"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls

Every game has been entirely sold and advertised based on the subtitle like "Morrowwind" "Oblivion" and "Skyrim"

I like how you quoted what the US trademark office said, and not what Zenimax said.

You want to be mad? Be mad at the trademark office, not Bethsoft or Zenimax.

'

What the hell are you playing at?

Seriously, it'd god damn obvious that I am mad at the Trademark office FOR THAT PARTICULAR QUOTE!

Just because I then add that I am mad at Zenimax for refusing Notch's generous offer, now remember Zenimax is not suing to get Mojang to drop the trademark, they are suing them FOR EVEN USING THE WORD "SCROLLS" AT ALL!

You are being blatantly deceptive. I suggest you edit your post.

 

[Kuala BangoDango]

They might have and we would never have heard about it, and it all depends on the the trademark office determines is infringement. Also Bethesda is protecting their trademark from future issues, not only would Mojang be able to sue them, but anyone who made a game with a similar title, or possibly the same title, would get away with it because failure to defend your trademark makes you lose it.

Ok. I grant you that. Maybe those similar games faced similar lawsuits. However I find it unlikely. Considering how long these lawsuits can take to resolve it'd be much cheaper and easier for a company developing the similarly-named game to just change the name before it's released.

After all, if YOU were developing a game and created a name for it and got sued and had 3 choices:

A) Go to court, possibly spending millions of dollars and several years in court-time and lawyers fees to keep the name, delaying or possibly halting it's development...

B) Come to an agreement with the other company to use the word but pay the other company hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars for the right to use the word...

or C) Just change the name and lose very little time or money.

Which would you do?

Since C obviously didn't happen then either the second company with the similarly-named game WANTED to pay a lot of money and time to keep their name or the first company's lawyers had no problem with the name and they never sued.

Logically I'd have to go with the "never got sued" theory.

 

[SnakeCL]

What the hell are you playing at?

Seriously, it'd god damn obvious that I am mad at the Trademark office FOR THAT PARTICULAR QUOTE!

Just because I then add that I am mad at Zenimax for refusing Notch's generous offer, now remember Zenimax is not suing to get Mojang to drop the trademark, they are suing them FOR EVEN USING THE WORD "SCROLLS" AT ALL!

You are being blatantly deceptive. I suggest you edit your post.

Because, Zenimax has no choice but to sue, otherwise they lose the trademark.

Secondly, Mojang did not agree to drop the trademark, they agreed to change it, which is not sufficient under trademark law.

Basically, everything that Notch has said, publically that he'd do, would not alleviate the issue. Its a situation where Zenimax MUST sue, whether they win or not, in order to protect their trademark. If they do not sue, they lose their trademark and someone, anyone, could step in and make "The Older Scrolls: Oldblivion" and it would be perfectly legal.

 

[Bostur]

This stuff only happens because people let lawyers do their thing without keeping them in check.

If I ask a tailor if I need a new pair of trouser, he would say yes. If I ask Bethesda if I should buy Skyrim they would say yes. And if you ask a lawyer if they should make a case out of something, that lawyer is bound to take personal gain into consideration as well.

So Bethesda, if you think you're right about the lawsuit go ahead with it, but take responsibility for it. Law is not a lawyer thing, it's meant to make life easier for all of us.

 

[Twad]

Laws will be Laws, but its people behind them that enforce them. if they didnt want to start trouble, they had all the opportunities in the world to NOT do anything.

 

[Frotality]

so what about that transmorphers movie and all those italian rip-offs? do these retarded laws not apply to movies?

just another case where something makes perfect legal sense but absolutely zero fucking actual sense. funny how that works out.

 

[plugav]

If Bethesda/the-evil-corporation-who-owns-them is being forced into this, then I suppose it won't be long before id Software gets sued by Sega for ripping off Streets of Rage.

Ugh why won't Notch just change the bloody name!? Yes, the case is nonsense, but who cares? Just change the name already! The game barely even exists anyway! Just change it!

This [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/08/19] seems like a good enough reason.

 

[Verdilian]

From what I have currently gathered. I am slightly siding with Zenimax here. Notch could have just applied the copyright to Games instead of being so wide-ranging. Of course, the real thing to blame is not Zenimax, or Mojang but, the U.S. Copyright law itself. Zenimax has to do this otherwise if Mojang succeeds, think of the consequences where less-than-pleasant companies try to take advantage of it. I don't see either as "bad" or fault. Again, blame the Copyright law for allowing this. But of course, these are my opinions on the matter.