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[Rooster]

Ok, bear with me, because I think this situation is ridiculous.

Taken from TheEscapistMagazine:
"Lawyers from Bethesda Softworks claim that Scrolls, the new game from Minecraft studio Mojang, infringes upon its Elder Scrolls trademark.

There's not a lot of meat on this bone, but here's what we know about the situation so far. Earlier this morning, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson tweeted, "Just got a letter from Bethesda's lawyers. They claim 'Scrolls' infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim."

It had the ring of an odd joke, but awhile later Notch seemed to confirm that he was indeed serious, following up with a second tweet saying, "I still <3 Bethesda. This is hopefully just lawyers being lawyers." He also posted a photo of the 15-page letter he received from the publisher as proof that he's not just pulling a bizarre prank.

Bethesda hasn't responded to our request for comment but it did tell PC Gamer that it has "no comment at this time." Notch hasn't said anything more on the matter either, although he did note that "At least I know what to call the floaty island dimension now!"

My hope is that this is just somebody in Bethsoft's legal department getting a little overzealous - "just lawyers being lawyers," as Notch put it. We'll keep you posted!"

Ok, that's the article. In my opinion Bethesdas lawyers are going too far, but who didn't see that coming, as copyright holders want more and more power.

Discuss

[thatkid]

I'm preferring to think that Bethesda outsources its legal work and this is some jack-ass lawyer in whatever firm they hired who thinks he or she is doing the right thing. Say what you will about Bethesda, but from what I've seen of them publicly the Bethesda devs just don't seem like the kind of people to pull this crap.
I'm not really qualified to say much more, as I don't actively follow this sort of thing or pay much attention to it.

And before anyone calls me a fanboy or something -- I'm not. I will admit that I really like Bethesda's games, but the quality of games really don't matter when it comes to judging whether or not someone would pull off an ass-hat move like this.

[MonkeyHead]

Someone somewhere thinks that a body they represent owns all legal rights to the use of the word "Scrolls"? Rly?

[Ninteen45]

Just here to say I'll be quoting the minerage from this latest piece of drama. I'm sure there will be comedy gold from all this.

From the news page:

I think it's disgusting. I personally hate it when the "big companies" attack the indie game makers for little things like this. Notch hasn't even recieved a trademark approval notice, and it's doubtful he will. Also, there must be thousands of games with "scrolls" in the title, but this one is famous so it gets picked on.

Bethesda never had my respect, but right now, it has managed to lose all of mine.

Wait... what just happened here? some person is suing Mojang for the title of a game in dev? If so i give them :Zombie: and some :SSSS::SSSS:

The smilies are broke on the website, too.

SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLSSCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS SCROLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
 SUE ME FOR THIS BETHESDA!!!!!!!!!! SUE ME FOR JUST PUTTING THESE WORDS IN THIS POST CMON SUE ME SUE ME NOW!

notsureifserious.jpg

This is CRAZY! How can they sue them for using one word! Ok its in the title of there game but you can't really get mixed up with "Elder Scrolls" and "Scrolls"! This is MADNESS! THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!

Props to some people not raging, I think a copypasta from the minecraft thread here was in the comments on the article.

[Rooster]

These comments are pretty funny, but this is serious busines.
I hope it doesn't hold up in court.

[Akura]

It won't, unless Sweden has some bass-ackwards law that allows it to. The word "scroll", while not neccessarily commonly used in the modern lexicon, is a regular common word, and trying to copyright it would be trying to copyright the word "the"(which is also in the title "The Elder Scrolls"). Not only that, but Notch's game has all but nothing in common with the TES series, other than the simple fact they are both video games.

Hell, the only TES game I know of which actually has one of the titular scrolls actually in it is Oblivion(as part of the Thieves' Guild final quest), although in Arena, doing the part of the main quest that opens Fang's Lair supposedly involves one in the possession of the High Rock queen.

[MorleyDev]

I guess this is a bad time to announce my new game, The Old Parchments: Airain, huh?

But seriously, wtf Bethesda? You used to be cool...

And I think "The Elder Scrolls" actually came from them being a key item in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign one of the developers used to run...they liked the world he game up with for the campaign so much they used it for Arena.

I'll admit I was largely on Bethesda's side with the whole interplay thing.

Selling Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics as the "Fallout Trilogy" is being deliberately misleading with no real excuses. Someone in Interplay is either a moron or malicious there, and neither say good things about them as a company.

Interplay promised Fallout Online would be at least close to completion by a certain date, and signed a contract with Bethesda assuring that they would aim to meet that date. They missed that date by a lot with no sign of any progress. You contract someone to fix your roof in a week and a month later they're sitting up there next to the whole in your roof drinking beer, you're gonna get pissy.

This is just starting to take the mick.

[thatkid]

It was actually the company that owns Bethesda that sued, not Bethesda.

[Grakelin]

I'm preferring to think that Bethesda outsources its legal work

I am almost certain that Bethesda outsources it legal work to a firm.

[GlyphGryph]

Selling Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics as the "Fallout Trilogy"

But most peope I know DO consider that the original Fallout trilogy, if anything. I know of no one that would consider Fallout 3 part of any "trilogy", except maybe the new one its making. (3, New Vegas, Whatever comes next)
Even then calling them a trilogy is kind of dumb, because Tactics never really fit properly, but I've seen those sold packaged together for quite a while.

[Tilla]

It was actually the company that owns Bethesda that sued, not Bethesda.

Zenimax is a shell company to keep Bethesda's other businesses separate from the game studio. It's owned by a guy from Bethesda.

There is no legal basis for this case honestly, it is literally impossible to successfully sue for use of a normal english word. See Tim Langdell's laughed-out-of-court case for his ownership of the word 'Edge'

[Starver]

The word "scroll", while not neccessarily commonly used in the modern lexicon, is a regular common word,

I've just realised I can't read the rest of this thread.  It continues beyond the bottom of my screen, and I'm now too frightened to continue to scr*ll any further down!

[Johuotar]

I like how Notch is like "Bethesda is great firm and I love their games" while mc fans scream their hatred.

[kaijyuu]

Is there anything actually controversial about this? It's a frivolous lawsuit no matter how you look at it, and in all likelyhood Bethesda's higher ups are yelling at their lawyers right now for hurting their PR.

[Duke 2.0]

I like how Notch is like "Bethesda is great firm and I love their games" while mc fans scream their hatred.

Its just MC fans. They hate Notch when he isn't being attacked by something, don't think about them too much.