Mojang and Bethesda Are Going to Court

[punipunipyo]

should have take the QuakeIII match...

I love Bethseda games, ever since Elder 3... but this... fighting over stupid name thing... it's ticking me off! REALLY? "...your game sounds too much like ours... change it, or I'll tell the teacher!" Are we still in like... Kindergarten? I REALLY don't see the big deal to this... Elder Scroll & the Scroll? they ARE different! you don't see War Hammer4000K suing StarCraft for "Space Marine" or "Zerg" looking too much like Terranets... This is bull... and low...


Maybe we can all hope to see... Bethseda just want that quake match in court.... or something...

 

[MissGinaKid]

Don't worry, if it comes down to it, Notch will use the Chewbacca defense.

I'm not familiar with that, please, elaborate, if you will?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1QI4P0YqtM
That person is talking about this.

 

[Baresark]

I don't think Bethesda has much of a case. From what I have read about trademarks, it's not just the use of a word that defines a trademark. It's the font, the colors, the size of the letters in regard to the size of the overall trademark, things like this. As well as the need to prove there is confusion, and not just from a single person, but a large part of the base audience they are seeking to get money from. Good luck to them though. I really like both companies.

Also, I'm tired of the argument that they are only doing this to enforce any future potential trademark infringements, that is just ridiculous. Be sensible. If they didn't defend against the "Scrolls" logo, they would not lose their trademark.

 

[trollax]

Lets give notch some TnT and a diamond sword and a creeper

 

[GeorgW]

Is this going to be handled by the Swedish courts? I certainly hope so, cuz they're brutal! They'll scream at Bethesda for even bringing it up, call them morons, and throw them out of court. That's the Viking way!
You know what? If they get the right judge there is an, albeit small, chance that they could actually settle this with a Quake match.

This needs to happen. Also Sweden is now about 90% more awesome in my books for not taking cases like these seriously. IT'S A WORD!

[sub]I wonder if the original creator of the word could sue EVERYBODY...[/sub]

It's pretty impossible to sue anyone here in Sweden, you have to have serious proof and a good reason to have to settle it in court. They'll probably play nice since it's an international case, and it probably won't be held in Sweden, but if they do and it's like it usually is... It's gonna be awesome.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

This is really unfortunate.

It's really, really obvious that very few, if any, gamers are going to confuse the two games.

The problem then is that the case isn't going to be ruled on by gamers. I could easily see someone saying "Two games with names that close? Of course they're going to be confused!" if they aren't actually familiar with the differences in these games and genres. To the video game-naive, this sounds analogous to a situation in which a company releases, say, a mop with the same name as a competitor's.

 

[Cat of Doom]

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.

You only get as much hate proportional to the idiotic hateful stunts you pull. EA has done FAR worser things than those 2 companies. Hence why it gets more hate from the interwebz.

Fair I suppose, but bethesda, along with microsoft game studios and activision seem to take some kind of pleasure in suing smaller developers over pointless things. I work for a company which has been threatened with legal action by one of these company over a vehicle model which looks similar to one cut from one of their games.

 

[Abengoshis]

If Bethesda win I'm going to buy a copy of Scrolls (or whatever it's called if they win) every time Bethesda release a new game and say that I thought it was the same game because it had a pixel the same colour on the advert.

 

[theantioch]

Bethesda is rather overlitigous, they sued interplay for infringing on their copyright for the fallout mmo by using the word fallout, with much the same argument they are doing here. they have so far have not made any headway in that case either.

 

[RichardThompson]

What happened to the Quake Deathmatch?

Bethesda decided to be mean and didn't respond to the challenge.

OT: "Using screenshots to prove that gamers are likely to confuse [the two games]"

There's no question mark big enough to depict my confusion.

must be showing a screenshot of the inventory in skyrim or something.

 

[Liquidcool]

Its like half the comments here are people saying "I don't even call it The Elder Scrolls I just call it skyrim/oblivion/morrowind."
I hope Bethesda wins. Why? Because Notch was quite disrespectful with that Quake challenge. They contact him with a serious matter (serious in Bethesdas eyes, at least) and he responds with "whoever has better hand-eye coordination wins!"

 

[cthulhlu]

i now know a little more and it seems like this is the fault of some retarded u.s copyright laws were if they dont argue every single little potential copyright infraction they will open the way for anybody to make a game and call it a elder scrolls game.
so while i still think its stupid, i no longer blame Bethesda as much

 

[Giest4life]

As usual, people pass on the opportunity to solve things the class way i.e. via Quake deathmathces.

 

[Robert Ewing]

A moronic move on Bethesda's legal division. I do hope Mojang win.

Besides, when people say scrolls, does anybody instantly think they are referring to the elder scrolls? Is that the only thing scrolls refers to?

I'm sorry, but that's basically like copy writing a word, so nobody else can use it ever.

 

[Nami nom noms]

I HIGHLY doubt Bethesda will win this case... imagine the precedent this would set not only in sweden but in the EU as a whole.
think of how many other games and films and songs share a single word in their title.

I honestly think this was Bethesda trying to muscle out the little guy, and it backfiring.

 

[Arbi Trax]

Am I the only one who is thinking, "Any publicity is good publicity" and that the dreaded whiff of marketing is afoot?

After all, talking about what shithouses Bethesda are is still keeping their name in the air. Right before a big release too.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

What I want to know is how is this a legal case when this movie came out after "Ratatouille"?

 

[Headsprouter]

I love Bethesda, but this seems pretty stupid.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

The case against Mojang's Scrolls is paper thin. Persson should counter sue Bethesda just for emotional distress and compensation for lost productivity due to these pointless court hearings.

If he did that, then he wouldn't be the Notch we know and love.