Elder Scrolls vs Notchs Scrolls?
polycounter lvl 17
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/05/elder-scrolls-vs-notchs-scrolls/
Alleges Minecraft-maker Notch on Twitter: Just got a letter from Bethesdas lawyers. They claim Scrolls infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim.
Alleges Minecraft-maker Notch on Twitter: Just got a letter from Bethesdas lawyers. They claim Scrolls infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim.
Replies
all i can think about this, is that Notch is going to get a shit-ton of free publicity out of this.
kinda
Without really knowing more, I'd say it's a pretty lame move. I guess I'll wait to judge though. I don't really see how people are going to confuse it though. I've never referred to an Elder Scroll game as "Elder Scroll." I've always said "Oblivion" or "Morrowind." I say get over it! Sounds like their lawyers are bored.
http://www.geekosystem.com/scrolls-notch-minecraft-new-project/
but that idea does remind me of
www.thefarwilds.com
If anything Scrolls will gain a shit ton of PR when every magazine writes about this.
Eld....that game your making...Call it... ELDER
...PLEASE!!! DO IT!!!
Honestly..I'd seriously consider it.
EDIT: Wait...Eldercraft!
THE ELDERCRAFTS!
They're working on this other project at mojang, called "scrolls", he got the letter due to some lawyers doing passive trademark protection work.
"lawyers doing passive trademark protection work." AKA threatening innocent people.
please use it!
I'm going to make a game called "The". And if anyone uses the word in a product my legal team will kick off!
I also have a sequel planned "2"
Nope, not really, you're pulling the same excuse most people pull for no reason and which can explained logically if you take a moment and think about it and why it happened.
Most lawyers in the world of the entertainment industry don't know what a copyrighted/IP'ed word is vs. a simple combination of words is, if you don't believe it, you can look up the Edge word and the entire debacle around it.
So if Notch (who is with Penny Arcade) currently making the game, names it Scrolls (which he did), a lawyer who works for another game company and doesn't have any proper knowledge about the subject matter will naturally file a passive-IP paper for said name.
What I'm getting at is that no one at Bethesda/Zenimax wants to sue someone for a name as simple as 'Scrolls', a lawyer pulled the trigger early because this is something you can do easily in the legal system in the North America's and because said lawyer didn't have any on hand experience about the industry and how it works. Most lawyers only every have theoretical experience they got in school.
Blame the lawyers and their lack of on hand experience, not the game company and the guys in it.
Apparently I know more about it than you do. He had no case, which is why this happened (among other losses):
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2010cv02614/228647/67/
The guy from Penny Arcade is going to do some writing for it -- not exactly them teaming up.
This is not actually happening in North America.
The lawyers were chosen by the game company to represent them, but I am not supposed to blame the game company? Maybe you can explain the logic here, since you are so much more logical than I am apparently.
http://notch.tumblr.com/
If they are just trying to protect their IP, then why are the lawyers also asking for money before it even goes to court? Here is my theory -- they have a business model based around threatening to sue people, and then extorting money out of them.
Do you have anything to say that actually makes sense, or is not factually mistaken?
+3 WIN
Makes me wonder if Bethesda will go after anything with "Arena" in the title (For protecting both their Elder Scrolls: Arena and Quake III Arena)
SCROLLS OF EDGECRAFT ARENA
A different insight on this case.
Much much better than the first reaction of bashing on Bethesda to "protect" the poor Notch.
That's quite an interesting read, unless it's wrong, but the writer sounds confident.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Maintaining_rights)
Welcome to the western world, where we spend our time and money fighting silly battles like this...
I think this is not the case. This is the same kind of product (at least from an outsider point of view).
Its amazing what you can own these days.
And it seem to might be a battle (or surrender, which I hope not): http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/08/bethesda-and-notchs-scrolls-off-explained/
Really, common words shouldn't be trademarked.
If this goes through I'm boycotting Skyrim. That'll teach em!
Im actually pretty pissed that a big name company would do that to an indie. way to hurt the industry, bethesda.
has bethesda actually said anything about this to the public? or are they hiding behind doors on the matter?
I hope they accept as well. In fact all silly lawsuits should be decided by battle of some description.
Two men enter, one man leaves.....Two men enter, one man leaves.....Two men enter, one man leaves.....Two men enter, one man leaves.....
And rightly so,
http://indiegames.com/2011/10/mojang_won_scrolls_is_now_scro.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IndependentGaming+%28Indie+Games%29&utm_content=FaceBook
Erm... Is he joking? People can still use the word...
They also reflected upon the fact that the title of Mojangs game partly describes the game whereas with Zenimaxs product they could not see a clear connection between the title and the product itself.
Zenimax could appeal I guess... but I dunno. Don't know that much about the system.
Edit: Stradigos, as I mentioned above they deemed the word too common for anyone to have copyrights on it. So I guess that means everyone is free to use the word Scrolls however they see fit.
I think it applies to the whole lawsuit since the trademark applies to more than just sweden, I'm just guessing (IANAL) that since mojang is a swedish company, the lawsuit took place in sweden.
Most likely, but no one can make a fantasy card trading game called scrolls without stepping on toes.
Zenimax owns the trademark to 'rage' do they not? which is yet another one word trademark.
You can use rage in a title, you just cant make a post apocalyptic shooter called rage.
"Hey Joe, did you play X4920 yet?"
"No man, been playing B342 a ton lately."
"Oh man, that's a classic! B, and only three digits!"
So glad mojang won though. I mean, i have HUGE respect for bethesda and love the games they make. Cant wait for skyrim. But this lawsuit was rediculous.
Not too far from the truth. George Lucas owns the trademark on the word Droid. He makes a little money on every Droid phone sold and each time they use it for TV/advertising.
I honestly think this is more just a publicity stunt by Bethesda to get Scrolls in the news more generating more press for there game.
No press is bad press.
edit: Really glad he won