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Board 8 > Haha, Bethesda is threatening Notch with legal action.

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 8:54:00 AM
#1:


They say that Mojang's new upcoming game, Scrolls, infringes on the trademark of The Elder Scrolls.

http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/99490084570660864
http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/99504783689388033

And I just saw an discussion not long ago with notch and Todd Howard (Executive Producer of Bethesda Softworks) where they were being real friendly with each other.

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Gwindor
08/05/11 8:56:00 AM
#2:


100% not buying Skyrim unless they cut this **** out.

****ing lawyers.

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VincentLauw
08/05/11 9:35:00 AM
#3:


Is this a joke

I have no idea what Scrolls is but if they aren't even remotely similar this has to be a joke right

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GANON1025
08/05/11 9:36:00 AM
#4:


Good.

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KamikazePotato
08/05/11 9:38:00 AM
#5:


Really.

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Viktor Vaughn
08/05/11 9:39:00 AM
#6:


http://www.scrolls.com/

ah hm yes i can not distinguish this from "The Elder Scrolls" in any fashion

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 9:40:00 AM
#7:


From: VincentLauw | #003I have no idea what Scrolls is but if they aren't even remotely similar this has to be a joke right


From what we've seen, Scrolls looks like a sort of card game thing. The issue's not with the games being too similar, it's the names.

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The Mana Sword
08/05/11 9:40:00 AM
#8:


Good.

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VincentLauw
08/05/11 9:42:00 AM
#9:


Which is why I said this has to be a joke

next thing you know Blizzard will be suing game developers who use the word 'craft' or 'war' in their game titles

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the icon ownz all
08/05/11 9:42:00 AM
#10:


From: VincentLauw | #009
next thing you know Blizzard will be suing game developers who use the word 'craft' or 'war' in their game titles


Notch is screwed again!


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Viktor Vaughn
08/05/11 9:43:00 AM
#11:


ahahaha

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Coffee Ninja
08/05/11 9:43:00 AM
#12:


Show them who's boss Bethesda, CRUSH THEM ALL.

oh and make the Elder Scrolls after Skyrim be Elswyer or Black Marsh plz

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skull_bonek23
08/05/11 9:43:00 AM
#13:


Why would it be a big deal to change the name? Just change the name >_>. Sure Bethesda might be overreacting but I don't care because I JUST WANT SKYRIM IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW

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_stingers_
08/05/11 9:44:00 AM
#14:


From: skull_bonek23 | #013
Why would it be a big deal to change the name? Just change the name >_>. Sure Bethesda might be overreacting but I don't care because I JUST WANT SKYRIM IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW


uh because why should he have to change the name
if this went to court he'd win easily so w/e

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VincentLauw
08/05/11 9:44:00 AM
#15:


From: the icon ownz all | #010
Notch is screwed again!


oh snap

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skull_bonek23
08/05/11 9:45:00 AM
#16:


uh because why should he have to change the name
if this went to court he'd win easily so w/e

Principle > Logic again!

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 9:47:00 AM
#17:


This topic has made me realize that I have no distinction between VincentLauw and Viktor Vaughn.

I just see the first letter of the name and the general length of the name and assume they're the same.

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Ainoxi
08/05/11 9:48:00 AM
#18:


From: skull_bonek23 | #016
uh because why should he have to change the name
if this went to court he'd win easily so w/e

Principle > Logic again!




...are you being serious right now?

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_stingers_
08/05/11 9:48:00 AM
#19:


i hope not -,-

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the icon ownz all
08/05/11 9:49:00 AM
#20:


viktor vaughn is snowy, one of the best users around and a man still needing to submit an album list. the other is just a dirty belgian anarchist.


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pjbasis
08/05/11 9:49:00 AM
#21:


WazzupGenius00 posted...
This topic has made me realize that I have no distinction between VincentLauw and Viktor Vaughn.

I just see the first letter of the name and the general length of the name and assume they're the same.

Been doing this since forever.
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LamdaMax
08/05/11 9:49:00 AM
#22:


Not sure what I think of the fact that Notch's reaction was to tweet this. Seems like he's using his legions of fans to generate negative publicity towards Bethesda until they withdraw. Not that he was in the wrong to begin with, though.
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FAHtastic
08/05/11 9:50:00 AM
#23:


Great, so we finally got 'edge' back from Tim Langdell and now Bethesda won't let people use 'scroll?'

Will Edge Scroll never see the light of day!?

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Ainoxi
08/05/11 9:50:00 AM
#24:


From: LamdaMax | #022
Not sure what I think of the fact that Notch's reaction was to tweet this. Seems like he's using his legions of fans to generate negative publicity towards Bethesda until they withdraw. Not that he was in the wrong to begin with, though.



Seems like a valid response to me. "You used a word that is in one of our titles. WE'RE SUING!" deserves all of the negative publicity it gets.

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skull_bonek23
08/05/11 9:51:00 AM
#25:


Not really, no. Scrolls looks pretty good but I don't think anything is going to happen with this silly lawsuit.

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VincentLauw
08/05/11 9:51:00 AM
#26:


From: the icon ownz all | #020
viktor vaughn is snowy, one of the best users around and a man still needing to submit an album list. the other is just a dirty belgian anarchist.


how RUDE

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Tom Bombadil
08/05/11 9:54:00 AM
#27:


man I wouldn't have heard of scrolls if not for this sounds awesome

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the icon ownz all
08/05/11 9:55:00 AM
#28:


is there a card based video game you don't like bolo


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baron von toast
08/05/11 9:56:00 AM
#29:


Silly lawsuit. It's probably going to be better than anything Bethesda has ever crapped out so maybe they can ride on Notch's coattails for a bit.

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 9:57:00 AM
#30:


From: LamdaMax | #022
Not sure what I think of the fact that Notch's reaction was to tweet this. Seems like he's using his legions of fans to generate negative publicity towards Bethesda until they withdraw. Not that he was in the wrong to begin with, though.


well in between those two tweets he also tweeted this http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/99498963081764864 where he says he still loves Bethesda.

But yeah tbh Bethesda absolutely deserves the negative reaction they get from this

and as tom demonstrates, this is like free advertising for Scrolls, so good play on notch's part imo

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beavis666x2
08/05/11 9:59:00 AM
#31:


From: baron von toast | #030
Silly lawsuit. It's probably going to be better than anything Bethesda has ever crapped out so maybe they can ride on Notch's coattails for a bit.


external image

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skull_bonek23
08/05/11 10:02:00 AM
#32:


But could people at least see where Bethesda is coming from (as stupid as it is)? If somebody went and made a game with Mario or Sonic as a big part of the title then Nintendo and Sega would demolish them even if it didn't have anything to do with the characters. Certain words draw obvious connections to other franchises when you use them in the same way. If someone made a game called Joe Smith: The Quest for the Scroll then Bethesda wouldn't give a f***. Whether the connection was intentional or not it's still there.

(even if it's stupid)

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Tom Bombadil
08/05/11 10:04:00 AM
#33:


is there a card based video game you don't like bolo

I think there was a flash ccg I couldn't get the hang of once and thought was dumb

other than that uh

nope

I love them dearly

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VincentLauw
08/05/11 10:05:00 AM
#34:


From: skull_bonek23 | #032
But could people at least see where Bethesda is coming from (as stupid as it is)? If somebody went and made a game with Mario or Sonic as a big part of the title then Nintendo and Sega would demolish them even if it didn't have anything to do with the characters. Certain words draw obvious connections to other franchises when you use them in the same way. If someone made a game called Joe Smith: The Quest for the Scroll then Bethesda wouldn't give a f***. Whether the connection was intentional or not it's still there.

(even if it's stupid)


This is not the same

not even in the slightest

this is more like calling a game 'Kart' and Nintendo suing you because they have a franchise called 'Mario Kart'

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 10:05:00 AM
#35:


No, it's not even close to the same as a game having "Mario" or "Sonic" in the title. Heck, people barely refer to them as "The Elder Scrolls," it's usually just "Daggerfall" "Morrowind" "Oblivion" "Skyrim"

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KamikazePotato
08/05/11 12:54:00 PM
#36:


A lot of people want more details about what is going on, so here is everything I know:

First of all, I love Bethesda. I assume this nonsense is partly just their lawyers being lawyers, and a result of trademark law being the way it is.

About half a year ago, our lawyers recommended us to register “Minecraft” as a trademark, so we did. I had voted against it initially, but we did it anyway. Better safe than sorry, and all that. At the same time, we also applied for “Scrolls”, the new game we’re working on. We knew of no similarly named games, and we had even googled it to make sure. I’m not even sure if you CAN trademark individual words, like “Scrolls”, but we sent in the application anyway.

(Disclosure: We’ve enforced the trademark for Minecraft once, when there was a minecraft clone on iOS, using our name. People were emailing me saying our iOS version was buggy and bad, so we asked them to change the name of their game, and they did.)

A while later, out of the blue, we got contacted by Bethesda’s lawyers. They wanted to know more about the “Scrolls” trademark we were applying for, and claimed it conflicted with their existing trademark “The Elder Scrolls”. I agree that the word “Scrolls” is part of that trademark, but as a gamer, I have never ever considered that series of (very good) role playing games to be about scrolls in any way, nor was that ever the focal point of neither their marketing nor the public image.
The implication that you could own the right to all individual words within a trademark is also a bit scary. We looked things up and realized they didn’t have much of a case, but we still took it seriously. Nothing about Scrolls is meant to in any way derive from or allude to their games. We suggested a compromise where we’d agree to never put any words in front of “Scrolls”, and instead call sequels and other things something along the lines of “Scrolls - The Banana Expansion”. I’m not sure if they ever got back to us with a reply to this.

Today, I got a 15 page letter from some Swedish lawyer firm, saying they demand us to stop using the name Scrolls, that they will sue us (and have already paid the fee to the Swedish court), and that they demand a pile of money up front before the legal process has even started.

I assume this is all some more or less automated response to us applying for the trademark. I sincerely hope Bethesda isn’t pulling a Tim Langdell.

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SBell0105
08/05/11 1:00:00 PM
#37:


Does this mean that a game called ELDER would be cause for a lawsuit as well?

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Sir Cobain
08/05/11 1:01:00 PM
#38:


http://www.gamefaqs.com/arcade/568763-sonic-blast-man
http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586302-mario-andretti-racing

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WazzupGenius00
08/05/11 4:46:00 PM
#39:


bump so more can laugh at Bethesda (well, it's probably Zenimax Media who's at fault here actually)

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Silvercross
08/05/11 4:56:00 PM
#40:


This is hilarious.

I also had a good laugh at whoever it was that suggested that this is like using Mario or Sonic in the title of a game, people saying he's wrong, and then Cobain coming in with the double shutdown.

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WarThaNemesis2
08/05/11 4:59:00 PM
#41:


Skyrim sounds like Shaymin time to shut down The Elder Scrolls, Nintendo.

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SmartMuffin
08/05/11 5:00:00 PM
#42:


Anyone who claims they won't buy Skyrim because of this is completely and totally full of crap.

This is a no-lose situation by Bethesda. A no-effort attempt at probably getting some small settlement. Nothing to see here.

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Pram_the_Oracle
08/05/11 5:02:00 PM
#43:


Are... are you actually supporting Bethesda in this?

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SmartMuffin
08/05/11 5:03:00 PM
#44:


Are... are you actually supporting Bethesda in this?

I'm saying it's a non-event.

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Silvercross
08/05/11 5:04:00 PM
#45:


When you say "No-Lose" it makes you sound like you think Bethesda is going to win this lawsuit.

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SmartMuffin
08/05/11 5:06:00 PM
#46:


When you say "No-Lose" it makes you sound like you think Bethesda is going to win this lawsuit.

No, but they won't lose anything regardless of the outcome. There will most likely BE no lawsuit. It was probably a cheap attempt at intimidation. These things happen constantly in the corporate world, but usually the person receiving them doesn't whine about it on Twitter to try and rile up a bunch of naieve nerds.

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StealThisSheen
08/05/11 5:07:00 PM
#47:


skull_bonek23 posted...
But could people at least see where Bethesda is coming from (as stupid as it is)? If somebody went and made a game with Mario or Sonic as a big part of the title then Nintendo and Sega would demolish them even if it didn't have anything to do with the characters. Certain words draw obvious connections to other franchises when you use them in the same way. If someone made a game called Joe Smith: The Quest for the Scroll then Bethesda wouldn't give a f***. Whether the connection was intentional or not it's still there.

(even if it's stupid)


Oh god. I nominate this for worst post of the year.



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Biolizard28
08/05/11 5:08:00 PM
#48:


Frankly I hope he loses.

Not because he's wrong, I just hate his guts.

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#49
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Silvercross
08/05/11 5:16:00 PM
#50:


SmartMuffin posted...
When you say "No-Lose" it makes you sound like you think Bethesda is going to win this lawsuit.

No, but they won't lose anything regardless of the outcome. There will most likely BE no lawsuit. It was probably a cheap attempt at intimidation. These things happen constantly in the corporate world, but usually the person receiving them doesn't whine about it on Twitter to try and rile up a bunch of naieve nerds.

Right, this is what I thought you meant.

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