Lawyers vs. Rocket Launchers
polycounter lvl 10
http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9038258448/hey-bethesda-lets-settle-this
This is pretty cute, though i'm sure not everyone will see it that way considering many think of video games as "serious business". Regardless, I love the message Majong is trying to send, games are supposed to be fun, not bullshit corporate mind games.
This is pretty cute, though i'm sure not everyone will see it that way considering many think of video games as "serious business". Regardless, I love the message Majong is trying to send, games are supposed to be fun, not bullshit corporate mind games.
Replies
Highly doubt it, but if this goes down, I hope they record the fight
If Bethesda were to take him up on the challenge, I would giggle.
But if it went to court, my money would be on Notch.
It would be cool if Bethesda jokingly took Notch up on the challenge, under the pretense that the results wouldn't change anything. (Because they wouldn't)
He's not asking to face his accusers, he's referencing game of thrones where the prosecution chooses their champions from their own ranks.
Additionally, whoever thought naming a fantasy based game "Scrolls" was a good idea and wouldn't be met with any type of legal troubles, is really, really thick. Also, someone needs to tell Notch his google search skills blow. Typing in "scrolls" game, or "scrolls" fantasy, or something of the sort, gets you the Elder Scrolls links popping up first page.
Notch is good at making money, though, there's no doubt about that. Of course that's not going to make him look like the "poor indie dev" in my eyes. I'd like to see him start taking this seriously.
Very true. But then I'm finding any news about notch annoying, since there's so much of it, I remember seeing 7 notch related news articles on develop in the space of 2 days.
No, I think "The Elder Scrolls" series of fantasy games may have a case against "Scrolls", an upcoming fantasy game.
It's like Nike's got...what, that slogan that's like "Just do it"? And then let's say Adidas decides to use a slogan that just says "Do it". That'd just be dumb.
I'm not saying Zenimax is going to "win", I don't really know or care what the outcome will be. I just think it's idiotic to not assume at least a little legal trouble when you name your fantasy game something very similar to one of the most well known fantasy franchises of all time. And I think it's equally idiotic to expect any sympathy because you "google searched it", and when you've got more sitting in the bank than most people could expect in a lifetime.
I think Notch should fight it. The lawsuit is shit and "really, really thick"
"Scrolls" is a word in the dictionary and should be fair game. A name like "nike" or a slogan like "just do it" is very different imo. The elder scrolls name itself specifically refers to scrolls that are...well, elder. Notch's game Scrolls is about Scrolls, what type of scrolls. We wont know till we see more of the game. But its Notch's Scrolls. Confusion about what google will throw out if you type in scrolls is completely matterless imo.
I said this before i think, but... If I was to create a game called "The" and had a huge team of lawyers behind me, do you think its right that I could sue anyone who uses the word "The" in any similar products?....dont be silly.
Lawsuit is silly...
Id like to think its a publicity stunt, but I would have used a name much closer to the target IP for that to make sure it takes off.
The fact that he tried to trademark said "word from the dictionary" kinda throws this logic out the window, wouldn't you say?
...because it's for...shoes and not games?
Notch should say exactly this if he wants to sound even more ridiculous. And if google searches don't matter - why would Notch bother saying he bothered with it? So you're saying the only thing he apparently did to check to see if his name was ok doesn't matter - in other words, he effectively did NOTHING to check to see if it was ok?
I guess I can agree with that.
That comparison is silly.
Just don't let them near OA
even if he does have to change the name it will be amid a big bunch of hype and the new brand will probably gain back any recognition lost in the name change
This is definitely true, Notch knows how to make money, that's for damn sure.
Part of me actually wonders if he didn't do this intentionally just for the publicity...
no. The fact that bethesda think they can sue because someone uses a word from the dictionary is wrong.
No, because Nike is a word created by the company and Just do it is a slogan made up of more than one word.
All he needed to do was open a dictionary and say, ooh. There's a nice word.
He will have researched it and googled it and found that, low and behold. No one has used Scrolls. So I will. You'll be saying next that I can't make a game called "auto" A trading card game based on cars, because of GTA....silly
no...it isn't. It's exactly the same.
nike is greek for victory.
Considering the fact that the one of the ideas with enforcing trademarks is to ensure that other companies shouldn't be able to leverage trademarks they don't own for publicity, Mojang has already won.
Yeah, i'm just repeating what everyone else is saying.
Does that seriously not read as backwards to you?
...seriously?
Don't know which way the suit will go, because in essence they're both wanting the same thing. I don't think it's silly for Zenimax to file against Notch, and I don't think it's silly for Notch to try and fight back. But I think Notch's reaction and playing up of the whole thing is silly, it's idiotic of him trying to make it sound like he did his research and is being "bullied". And his childish, superstar way of trying to handle things is really annoying.
*cough*
Also I bet the amount of people who have heard of Scrolls has gone up like 1000%
I'm not criticizing Zenimax, I'm saying the law is shit.
As said. I think its a great move by Notch. Everyone's talking about it. I bet he isn't losing any sleep over it anyway.
http://forums.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=25816-0
mythic entertainment sued microsoft ( mutha fucking microsoft) over calling a game mythica....this isn't even the same word, and one is a name of a company not even a game.
microsoft pretty much has the best lawyers in the world, so notch just has to find some better than that.
Elder Scroll games are single player, vast 3D world set in fantasy. While Scrolls is a fantasy trading card game.
Obviously Bethesda's lawyers are bored or maybe they need to show that they are doing something for their vast pay checks and this is the best they could come up with.
They don't. Nobody sued Realmforge for bringing out 'Dungeons'. Nobody sued Trion for 'Rift'. Nobody sued PlayDead for 'Limbo'. I'm willing to bet folks here can name quite a few trademarked titles that contain those words that predate those games.
A single word that constitutes part of an extended title is not similar enough to be considerable as a trademark infringement, unless we're talking about a made-up or otherwise 'unique' word. The word 'Scrolls' is hardly unique.
That's just it though. It's not similar. It's ONE word. If Zenimax owned a game franchise that was called and trademarked 'The Scrolls', then there might be a case.
In the context of a video game franchise it makes perfect sense. Doom is a trademark. Quake is a trademark. These are games we know and love and have done for a long time. Trademarks have a context. They also can have a distinct appearance.
The reason this whole thing has cropped up is because the suit is utterly bizarre. It would make sense if their logos looked the same, but Mojang's game doesn't even have a logo.
What other people haven't been sued for doesn't change the simple fact that Zenimax is acting well within their rights (and depending on how you look at it, doing their duty) filing the suit. That doesn't mean they'll win, but as Arshlevon pointed out, sometimes weird shit happens. Zenimax could argue that Scrolls will profit because it's a fantasy game using a part of their trademark, which they made so popular. Is it "right"? Who knows, that's up to the individual to decide, but the law hasn't dismissed the case yet.
That's what we're waiting to find out. You may have it all sorted in your noggin, but the law doesn't look at it as generally as you. To them it's going to be about context. Is it unique enough, since it's for a fantasy game? It would probably be unique enough if it were for a car, or a massage therapist, or the name of the brand of joints you can legally buy when they legalize marijuana (how slick would that be?) But this is a little different. It's like - you can use the word "auto" in pretty much any company name or game name that deals with cars, and you couldn't trademark the word itself. It's a generic term for card/automotive related stuff. But the word "scrolls" is more unique than that, and so we now get to find out if it's too unique (and consequently, owned by Zenimax) for Mojang to use, or if it's fine.
It cropped up because it happened to Notch, who's in just about every day's news these days - and because everyone on the planet is typing "bethesda" into google every day to get information about Skyrim. Had this been between two smaller companies with games we weren't real familiar with, nobody would give a crap.
I agree with you. It's a real shame we have to have these sorts of laws to begin with. But when the world is as big and easy to access as it is today, well...expect more of it, not less. There's a lot of reasons to choose being an artist over other jobs, haha.
I love me some Q3A, but he totally should have challenged them to UT for neutral territory
edgewind.
so bethesda is pulling a tim langdell?
i wouldnt use it for anything
more interesting thou: is the phrase "Tales of *random word*" registred?
Palladium sued Trion over Rift, they settled out of court.
Although that suit is because the names actually ARE the same.