Mojang and Bethesda Are Going to Court

[ChaoticKraus]

I could point out a million ways this is stupid but what strikes me is that no one thinks about the "Elder Scrolls" franchise by that name.

Some names are immediatly recognizable, Call of Duty for example. But "The Elder Scrolls" won't ring that many bells for non-hardcore gamers. Most people think of them as "Morrowind" or "Oblivion" or "Skrim".

If i said: They're making a new elder scrolls game, people would just get confused. If i said: A sequel to Oblivion is dropping, they would become excited. The brand recognition is not that strong.

 

[Scrustle]

Ugh how pathetic. I didn't think this would ever get to court. How stupid.

 

[blankedboy]

I do not think Bethesda will win this court case. I mean can you actually patent the use of an everyday word? And everyone I know does not even call them the elder scrolls we call them by their subtitle names.

Well, the colour purple is copyrighted by Cadbury... true story. Apparently it's not that hard.

 

[Venereus]

Like Judge Leonard White (played by Morgan Feeman in The Bonfire of the Vanities film) said:

"You're new here, Mr. Kramer. Let me explain something to you. This case is what we call a piece of shit. Which means, loosely translated, that you have no evidence."

 

[scw55]

Anyone who confuses Scrolls with The Elderscrolls is a complete moron. Infact the word "The Elder Scrolls X" never settled into my brain intill a few weeks ago. I knew there was a series but couldn't remember the name, only the numbers. Besides, remembering "Morrowind" and "Oblivion" is alot more convenient.

Bethesda l2brain. Perhaps if you used a less ambiguous series title then this problem wouldn't exist.

It's not like the game's called Sky Rim.


If Nintendo used the Bethesda logic here, would anything with the name "Legend" in it be Intellectual rights infringment? Poor IRLegend author.

 

[hermes]

Lucky for Notch Blizzard's lawyers aren't that nasty, otherwise I'm sure they'd get sued for using the -craft suffix.

We live in a world where Bethesda are bigger douchebags than Activision... For a moment I thought I was in a bizarro world.

I just hope they loose the case. Not only they will have to pay Notch some serious money, but they also have provided with some invaluable publicity for a game most people wouldn't be aware of (other than being "from the guy that made Minecraft...")

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'm not confused, nor would I be.
But then again, I don't need other people to carefully explain the differences between similarly-named games to me.
Confusing one for the other is entering into "I'm so stupid, I need someone to help me pee." territory.

 

[dubious_wolf]

I would like to go on the record saying I rarely even refer to the Bethesda's series of fantasy RPG's as "The Elder Scrolls Games" or any possible derivative. I am a huge Bethesda fanboy and I often refer to the games by their secondary title, "Morrowind" "Oblivion" "Skyrim" Etc. and if I do refer to the games by the primary "Elder Scrolls" title it is immediately followed by a number indicating which game in the series. Further have never heard of "Scroll" and it is very obvious that this game in no way could be confused with Bethesda's games.
put a bow on that and send it to the lawyers.
(for the record I was trying to make it sound as lawyery and pompus as I could.)

 

[scw55]

Not only they will have to pay Notch some serious money, but they also have provided with some invaluable publicity for a game most people wouldn't be aware of (other than being "from the guy that made Minecraft...")

Well, at this moment he's getting alot of free publicity before the game's even released for alpha which is oh so considerate of Bethesda. The legal fees if he loses will probably still be less than the same amount of paid aggressive marketing.
Also, Bethesda make themselves look like pricks. I doubt this will dent the sales of Skyrim as I will still buy the game, but perhaps over time if Bethesda keeps up this behaviour they'll earn the EA and Activision stigma which would make people more wary.

 

[cthulhlu]

id point out that everyone who is excited about skyrim is saying "Wow i cant wait to get skyrim!" None is saying "Wow i cant wait to get the elder scrolls, skyrim!"
hell i know people who think the elder scrolls is a different game!

 

[Saerain]

Talking with a friend about games he's looking forward to, I was treated to this:

Hallanger: SWTOR, BF3, MW3, GW2, and NWN(Whatever) need to come out sooner.

Hallanger: Oh, and the next Scrolls game.

Hallanger: I forget the name.

Saerain: Did you do that intentionally?

Saerain: Sorry, I've been telling everyone in regards to the Scrolls lawsuit that no one calls the Elder Scrolls series Scrolls. Corrected.

Hallanger: Also, the maker of some game challenged another maker of a game to a duel in Quake.

Hallanger: To settle a lawsuit I believe.

Saerain: Are you being serious right now?

Hallanger: I know, that's how presidential elections should be handled.

Saerain: No, I mean...

 

[Avatar Roku]

Good for Bethesda.

I hope they get to see Mojang driven before them.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but I agree. Too many Mojang fanboys on here, crying over this. Mojang should just change the name. I mean, "Scrolls"? Really? Show some imagination, plug.

Lack of imagination in the game title has nothing to do with this case. They have a right to name the game "scrolls". Bethesda does not own that word.

Huh, if this was EA instead of Bethesda suing over something this silly, the internet will be set alight with rage, everyone boycotting the old republic and the next dragon age game, comparing EA to the devil and slandering origin for some reason. Some developers like Bethesda and others *Cough* Valve *Cough* get free passes when they pull dick moves I suppose.

The only reason everyone is getting so emo about this on here is because they're all fanboys of Mojang...last years winner for "Best Game Company" or whatever the title was, on this site. They beat out legitimate game companies because of one game. Really? Way too many fanboys.

Which affects the case how? Even if every one of us were Notch fanboys, that doesn't change the fact that Bethesda does not own the word "scrolls".

It's simple. No one hears the word "scrolls" and thinks of Oblivion or Morrowind, every game in the series is known by it's subtitle. Hence, Bethesda has no case as far as brand recognition goes.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

How exactly are they going to use user comments as evidence? Users are anonymous. They can be Bethesda employes as far as we know, or just regular trolls. User comments can't be considered as evidence for either side of the argument. If you want user comments to count, get those people who commented and put them on witness stand. That's the only way their comments would count as evidence.

 

[mariofan1000]

"Scrolls has multiplayer, yo' playin' with me?"

"Oh, I was just about to buy that!"

"Why did you buy Elder Scrolls?"

"Oh, you meant Notch's Scrolls...LOL"

On second thought, I shouldn't say that, Bethseda might take it out of context.

 

[silversnake4133]

Huh, if this was EA instead of Bethesda suing over something this silly, the internet will be set alight with rage, everyone boycotting the old republic and the next dragon age game, comparing EA to the devil and slandering origin for some reason. Some developers like Bethesda and others *Cough* Valve *Cough* get free passes when they pull dick moves I suppose.

The only reason everyone is getting so emo about this on here is because they're all fanboys of Mojang...last years winner for "Best Game Company" or whatever the title was, on this site. They beat out legitimate game companies because of one game. Really? Way too many fanboys.

Or maybe they're defending an underdog from being bullied by a larger company. While fanboyism may or may not be a factor here, you can't deny that suing someone because of one word is kind of stupid. Now if Notch had just named the game "The Scrolls of Elder" then yeah, Bethesda would have a legitimate case. But the fact that it's over one common word in the English language, they're starting to sound more like playground bullies than sensible adults. In other words, you can't sue a small Indie company over a word in the English language and NOT expect to get retaliation from the fans, especially since Bethesda is saying that people wouldn't be able to differentiate between them. And if they're really doubting that, perhaps they should just increase the size of the "The Elder Scrolls" part of their title. Not only that, but Notch did offer other ways of side-stepping the lawsuit. After all, why should Mojang just automatically be required to change the name? Why can't they have a right to name their game what they want? Is it because they're an Indie developer that they should bow to whatever the bigger corporations want? No, otherwise they'd have several bigger companies knocking on their door requesting that they hand over all of their intellectual properties and rights because they were being "taken over" by such and such company.

As for the "Best Game Company" thing, that was an OPINION poll. Escapists voted for their FAVORITE company based on their performance over the course of the year. Mojang made a great game and a lot of people wanted Mojang to win because of their amazing success. For God sakes man even fans of Bethesda are seeing how stupid this lawsuit is. Next thing you know, someone's going to knock on your door offering you a lawsuit and compensation because you two have the same name. Also this game is still in production so all that Bethesda could use against Mojang are pre-rendered cutscenes, and many a gamer knows that more often than not, pre-rendered cutscenes aren't very good indicators of what the final product will look/play like. And they also want to use photographs and user comments as evidence, which is weird because a large percentage of people on the internet are sarcastic trolls, and photographs can only explain so much of an abstract idea. Unless people are walking around with a cocked eyebrow I doubt they'll be able to tell that they are confused over whether they're playing Mojang's "Scrolls" or Bethesda's "Skyrim".

 

[Zaverexus]

I vote for the judge who rules that they should have the Quake 3 Deathmatch.

But in all seriousness: Really Bethesda? Its that big a deal?

 

[hermes]

Which affects the case how? Even if every one of us were Notch fanboys, that doesn't change the fact that Bethesda does not own the word "scrolls".

It's simple. No one hears the word "scrolls" and thinks of Oblivion or Morrowind, every game in the series is known by it's subtitle. Hence, Bethesda has no case as far as brand recognition goes.

Exactly. I almost wish the judge would order Notch to drop the scrolls game and use something more, like Oblivion. Its obvious Bethesda consider that word as a simple subtitle as all its brand recognition rests in "Elder Scrolls"...

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Fairly dissapointed with Bethesda for this, hoped they'd not fall to the level of such infamous companies as EA and Activision. But I suppose the more money a publisher earns the more dickmoves it allows them to pull..

Know what I called Morrowwind? I CALL IT MORROWWIND.
Know what I called Oblivion? I CALL IT OBLIVION.
Know what I call ths lawsuit? I CALL IT A TRAVESTY.

Personally I call it Morrowind, but each to their own.

Well, the colour purple is copyrighted by Cadbury... true story. Apparently it's not that hard.

Wait, really? So no other confectionary company can use that same colour purple?

Wow.

 

[anian]

This is so stupid I can't believe anybody took this to court. I mean, as was mentioned, even they put the "Elder scrolls" in small letters on the package and put Morrowind or Oblivin or Skyrim in big thick letters and nobody even calls it by full name.

I suggest somebody gets on and makes a game called "Elder" that's a retirement home sim and then sue Bethesda after they release Skyrim.
My other suggestion - if Bethesda wins, Gene Roddenberry's heirs should sue George Lucas for calling Star wars after Star trek - and you know what, that would make more sense since, I know people who actually do mistake these two.