Does this only happen to games?

[basm321]

Bethesda and EA are going to court over one common noun, as you all know, but does that happen much if ever in books or movies? Star Trek could have sued Lucas over Star Wars 'cause they both take place in space, are sci-fi and have the word star in the tittle.

Is this exclusive to video games or just a more recent development due to how IPs are patented these days?

 

[Dargocitfer]

It seems to be computer and technology related (For Reference see: Any number of Cell Phone related lawsuits recently...)

 

[vxicepickxv]

I guess I could dig up the link about Ghostbusters from The Big Picture with Movie Bob, but... okay, fine. Here it is.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2854-Two-Many-Busters

There's also this other one that Movie Bob did about comic books.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/2972-Captains-Courageous

 

[megapenguinx]

This is really all corporate lawyers do. All day. It's nothing new, hasn't been for decades... it's just more public now that people are paying attention.

Companies sue each other over everything they can imagine. It's like real-life griefing, except it's run completely by vampires who've gamed the system so businesses are forced to pay one parasite to throw money at the other guy's parasite.

Except not,

Companies have to sue in order to protect their copyrights and trademarks.If they don't at least try to defend them, they could lost their patents. Hence why Bethesda is suing Notch. They probably have nothing against the guy, but they have to do what they have to do.

 

[Bob_Dobb]

Methinks Bethesda is low on cash after the failures Brink and Hunted and suing everything, Mojang, EA, Interplay and so forth

 

[aPod]

Except not,

Companies have to sue in order to protect their copyrights and trademarks.If they don't at least try to defend them, they could lost their patents. Hence why Bethesda is suing Notch. They probably have nothing against the guy, but they have to do what they have to do.

Scrolls, ya, they're trying to say they own the trademark on the word scrolls.

I'm not the only person who thinks that this kind of "protection" pushes the bounds of what copyright was meant to do.

It's feels awful "Edge" to me.

Now if the game was Called elder scroll: morrowind 2 sue the shit out of them.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

This is really all corporate lawyers do. All day. It's nothing new, hasn't been for decades... it's just more public now that people are paying attention.

Companies sue each other over everything they can imagine. It's like real-life griefing, except it's run completely by vampires who've gamed the system so businesses are forced to pay one parasite to throw money at the other guy's parasite.

Except not,

Companies have to sue in order to protect their copyrights and trademarks.If they don't at least try to defend them, they could lost their patents. Hence why Bethesda is suing Notch. They probably have nothing against the guy, but they have to do what they have to do.

Except they really don't have to because no one is going to confuse the Scrolls card game with the Elder Scrolls series of video games.

 

[megapenguinx]

This is really all corporate lawyers do. All day. It's nothing new, hasn't been for decades... it's just more public now that people are paying attention.

Companies sue each other over everything they can imagine. It's like real-life griefing, except it's run completely by vampires who've gamed the system so businesses are forced to pay one parasite to throw money at the other guy's parasite.

Except not,

Companies have to sue in order to protect their copyrights and trademarks.If they don't at least try to defend them, they could lost their patents. Hence why Bethesda is suing Notch. They probably have nothing against the guy, but they have to do what they have to do.

Except they really don't have to because no one is going to confuse the Scrolls card game with the Elder Scrolls series of video games.

It's basically the way the patent system is messed up. That's how Apple can get away with forging evidence and getting Samsung devices banned in Germany.

Same thing here, only you're wrong. Some people will actually confuse Notch's game with that of Bethesda . It's stupid, I know. But it has to go through because the patent system is broken.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

This is really all corporate lawyers do. All day. It's nothing new, hasn't been for decades... it's just more public now that people are paying attention.

Companies sue each other over everything they can imagine. It's like real-life griefing, except it's run completely by vampires who've gamed the system so businesses are forced to pay one parasite to throw money at the other guy's parasite.

Except not,

Companies have to sue in order to protect their copyrights and trademarks.If they don't at least try to defend them, they could lost their patents. Hence why Bethesda is suing Notch. They probably have nothing against the guy, but they have to do what they have to do.

Except they really don't have to because no one is going to confuse the Scrolls card game with the Elder Scrolls series of video games.

It's basically the way the patent system is messed up. That's how Apple can get away with forging evidence and getting Samsung devices banned in Germany.

Same thing here, only you're wrong. Some people will actually confuse Notch's game with that of Bethesda . It's stupid, I know. But it has to go through because the patent system is broken.

I think that mistake would be a little like mixing up Master of Puppets and a hand puppet, personally.