Mojang is Getting Sued by Bethesda

[Xyrin]

Mojang is getting sued. Apparently Bethesda doesn't like the name of "Scrolls" because it's too close to "The Elder Scrolls" which doesn't seem right. I assume they think people will mistake Scrolls for Skyrim. Which doesn't exactly make sense because they're two completely different games.

Here's the full story according to Notch

Discuss, what do you think on the matter? Is it fair?

 

[NurseBarbra]

emm.... might as well sue everyone else who's made a game before them containing the word "Scrolls".... you know, to cover a wide basis?

 

[U.Flame]

Scroll is a noun, not a trademarked word. I don't think anyone can bring the use of a noun into court without looking like an idiot.

 

[Palkia]

The word Scrolls is not copyrighted. It's insane the things companies get sued for nowadays.

 

[Legobricks]

This is... preposterous; that's all it can be, really. It's also familiar — I think Bethesda have done this sort of thing before.
I don't think it's within Bethesda's rights to assert their trademark that broadly, but I'm not a legal professional...

 

[Captain Fabio]

I am pretty sure that they won't win the lawsuit. Since 'Scrolls' can be a widely used word in games, it would be difficult for them to sue a company over this such word. They haven't got a copyright over the word and when you say 'scrolls', you don't exactly think of 'The Elder Scrolls', well I think the average amount of people won't, unlike 'Halo', which pretty much everyone knows.

I think they are just trying to scare Mojang into something, but not sure what.​

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[Arcanine]

Will Bethesda win? More then likely not (but then again... you can never tell these days).
I just don't see a point to them doing this... Is it like Will said and trying to scare them? Is it trying to stir up some talk about Skyrim (not that it's really needed)? Or maybe they really believe they own the world "scrolls" and expect to be paid when someone uses the word.

 

[Åzurε]

Ridiculous and a dork move on Bethesda's part. I'd be pretty surprised to see this go through. Could be a publicity stunt, albeit working from the "no such thing as bad publicity" standpoint.

 

[Legobricks]

I think they are just trying to scare Mojang into something, but not sure what.

Why would they do that?

 

[Zet]

Bethesda is going to lose just like Apple did in their case against Amazon over the term "app store".

 

[Luck]

I want to say that Bethesda won't win, but Tim Langdell prevented the word 'Edge' from being used for so long, and George Lucas still has control over the word 'Droid'.

It's pretty hilarious if they actually believe people think TES when they mention Scrolls. I've actually heard more people refer to Skyrim as Oblivion 5 than TES 5.

 

[hyperblast81]

From what I heard from people, It isn't really Bethseda going after Mojang, it's Zenimax Media, Bethseda's game publisher.

On the actual topic of it, I think it's just plain stupid.. it's a noun for christ's sake!

 

[Legobricks]

From what I heard from people, It isn't really Bethseda going after Mojang, it's Zenimax Media, Bethseda's game publisher.

Bethesda is a subsidary of ZeniMax Media, but yeah, this probably is the latter's fault. In any case, since Bethesda is the bigger name and the one more likely to be referred to, it brings them as a whole greater negative attention for actions like this.