Mojang Offered Up Scrolls Trademark, Bethsoft Said "No"

[The Electro Gypsy]

The best bit is that "The Elder Scrolls" and "Scrolls" are two entirely different things. I hope Bethesda loses just for their stupidity. (I'm not siding with Mojang tho cos I'm not overall fussed, I just want Bethesda to lose. Then again, an enemy of an enemy and so on....)

 

[Aprilgold]

Whys THE MAN always gotta be hating on the little guy? Especially an innovative little guy.

Notch? Little?

Actually, yes.
Indie Dev- Mojang. Has probably under 30 guys working there.
Triple A dev - Bethesda. Over 100.
Bethesda has a lot more power behind their legal and how big their teams are. Quite literally, Bethesda could squish him quite easily. Bethesda, no one, ever, ever calls your games the Scroll series, we call them by their title, like Morrowind, or Skyrim, not scrolls.

 

[mrsuperunderpants]

What gets me is Bethesda are suing Majong over the name scrolls because they didn't want people to get mixed up and not buy Skyrim, but it seems to me that they will lose more sales now because of this anyhow. Silly Silly Bethesda

 

[AnarchistFish]

How can you trademark an actual word? Makes no sense

 

[GrandmaFunk]

I don't know if Russ has a personal bias one way or another, but his post read as being very pro-zenimax in it's slant.

it mostly came off as "i hate it when mommy and daddy fight.. so mommy, why don't you just let daddy hit you?"

 

[Nomatophobe]

As stupid as this whole lawsuit is it's not going to stop me from buying Skyrim (already bought MC).

 

[RaikuFA]

Whys THE MAN always gotta be hating on the little guy? Especially an innovative little guy.

Notch? Little?

HAH!

Joking aside, this really sucks. Hopefully it'll end with Mojang winning.

compared to bethesda his company is small

 

[Sewer Rat]

Wow Bethesda... You may think your saving your saving your copyrights with moves like this but frankly, if you keep going on like this and the brand is not even going to be worth saving. So much negative PR is going to be (and already has been) generated by this whole fiasco that I daresay I would not be surprised if a Skyrim boycott actually gathered enough steam to put a significant dent in your profits. I wasn't planning on purchasing Skyrim on release day (to many bugs when it first comes out, not to mention I don't have $60 to blow right now) but frankly I'm not even sure if I want to buy it at all right now. The rest of you can say what you will about "lol they lost one customer" but from what I've read, a lot of people feel the same right now, and if all those people stick by their guns and don't buy the game... Well, that might hurt. Bethesda, I love you guys, I love your games, but you better turn this around fast or else you are going to lose a lot of business, perhaps including my own.

 

[LastDarkness]

This is kinda silly in the fact that scrolls is a common use word and as evidenced by previus ruling on these same issues 'see the Edge case' among others Bethesda is likly to lose any such court judgement.

Im almost afraid this is a publicity stunt done by one of those notoriusly bad third partys. (See the I want a PSP for christmas fiasco)

 

[rob_simple]

Surely the only thing you have to do to not buy the wrong game is look at the back cover?

 

[kouriichi]

Deep in the heart of Bethesda~!:
"They are a threat to our future expansion of the RPG genre! THEY MUST BE ELIMINATED!"
"D:< We could kill Notch. And make it look like a minecraft related suicide!"
"NOOOOOOO! To easy! We will sue them into..... OBLIVION! NYEAHAHAHAHAHAA~!"


OT: Honestly, i think this entire thing should just be dropped. Theres almost no grounds for this to be happening. But, lawyers will be lawyers.

 

[RaikuFA]

How can you trademark an actual word? Makes no sense

tim langdell was able to do it for years, suing everyone who said edge

 

[demoman_chaos]

If I buy Skyrim, used it shall be.

Notch should send some creepers to the Bethesda fortress, that might get their attention.

 

[Slashe]

Nice one-sided article. They're going to Swedish court, so Bethesda cannot win money from them. And Notch ignored a cease and desist letter from Bethesda and is surprised there are consequences? He must have missed that life lesson when he was on vacation for the 500th time. He wanted the trademark 'Scrolls' to basically encompass the entire fucking word, and changing it from 'Scrolls' to 'Scrolls: (subtitle)' is a joke.

Bethesda is suing them so their goddamn game franchise can't be forced to rename because some fat fuck wants to own a word. Of course, the manchild can't see this, because he just wants to be the flavor of the month.

And I hate, HATE how people classify Mojang as 'indie' just because Notch says they are, when the profits from their game make real indie studios look like a college student's life savings. But no, let's rally around Notch because his MILLIONS aren't as plentiful as ZeniMax's.

If what you're saying is true (regarding how you EDIT: CANNOT win money from swedish court) then, this has become even more interesting... I'm more willingly to trust Bethsoft more than Mojang now due to their blantant milking of gamer sympathy, and the fact that it is likely that Notch became complacent/arrogant from the success of Minecraft.

That aside, Bethsoft's legal department is overreacting a tad (prolly pissed at Mojang's idea to use this whole scenario as a publicity stunt and walk away without consequences), and hope that they would back down.

But still, it is also interesting how BethSoft has not released any form of statement, casual or formal, in regards to this debacle, while Mojang has been flinging arrows all over the place, going as to debuff Russ' kotatu article within hours

 

[Xannieros]

So they are suing with out a reason? Can they counter sue for a waste of their time and money?

I can't take Bethesdas side...

 

[Thumper17]

I think the reason is market confusion with a similarly titled game on the same day.

Minecraft is/was supposed to be finished on 11/11/11 coinciding witht he release of Skyrim and a few other things. Scrolls isnt due out for a while.

 

[lacktheknack]

Hey, guys? Did anyone notice who wrote the Kotaku article? It's a republish from some guy's blog [http://www.falsegravity.com/]. Ahem:

Mojang v. Bethesda, or: I Hate it When Mommy and Daddy Fight
By Russ Pitts Oct 3, 2011 3:00 PM 106,141 291

Heh.

Now, is it a matter of "stirring up false controversy", or "it's a small world"?

I'm thinking the latter.