Mojang being sued by Zenimax Media

Because of a game they might make called "Scrolls".

That's absurd. I hope this gets nipped in the bud, fast.

So, Bethesda's law goons believe they have the sole legal right to the word "scrolls"?

I hope guy stands up to it. The real problem with these lawsuits is that the lesser guy usually caves, which is why our laws get so fucked up.

Shit like this is why copyright law needs massive reform, or to just be repealed altogether.

WHAT.

This is like that guy who tried trademarking "Edge" and using that against Mirrors Edge.

This can't be right. Surely if it were based on individual words contained within trademarked phrases, then every single word in the English language would be trademarked by now. I wonder if these guys have the funds to hire a defense or not.

No better than (barely) legalized robbery, imho.

With the very notable difference that this is Bethesda, a reputable and important brand name in the industry, making the attack. If they get away with it, expect everyone else to follow their lead.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:04:22 PM by Karkadinn

Yugioh itself was sued for using the term "Magic Cards" by Magic The Gathering. It's a similar case, but the major difference is that this is the name of the entire game, and it'll confuse the two. When you say "Magic Cards", you could mean the game or the literal card-type. This has some sense to it.

Here, however, it doesn't. Scrolls and The Elder Scrolls are two completely different games and names. They share a word, but that's it.

That's like saying I can't name my kid Fire because another person has the name Fire. Albeit, at a grander scale and a slight difference. The only difference being "money", and nothing more. To clarify, a person's name is protected under the same kind of law as Trademarking a name is. It's based off of not copying someone else. However, in this case, The Elder Scrolls wasn't copied. Likewise, the word "Scrolls" is used in tons of games already. By that logic, they should sue everybody else for the same reason. This won't deter The Elder Scrolls' sales by any means.

It's the same reason Parodies are allowed, generally. They don't deter the original product in any way.

Jesus christ copyright laws get stupid as hell sometimes :/

Personally I find the patenting of words to be idiotic in itself. Bethesda is being straight up anal about this. I'd understand if say they were trying to make money off a game using the Elder Scrolls brand name when it's not, but this right here is just ridiculous.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:25:06 PM by Vertigo_High

Bethesda, gosh you guys are overreacting on this

It's not Bethesda themselves filing this, it's Zeni Max Media that is.

It's like Activision suing someone over a trademark owned by a studio they themselves own.

Will Minecraft be affected by this?

Copyrights suck.

The concept of copyrights in and of themselves aren't too bad, it's how the laws are currently structured that suck.

Though this case is bullcrap to begin with. Market confusion? Hell if that's a legit claim, why hasn't The Asylum (the production company) gotten sued to hell and back?

The other problem is that "Scrolls" is a common word used in-game all the damn time. The word predates "The Elder Scrolls" as well. Even if they can copyright their own name, they never copyrighted the sole use of the word.

It's a failed attempt at the start. Hopefully, the Judge will be able to just say "this is bullshit" and nobody loses money as is. It's practically a mistrial in itself. Of course, it won't be that easy, so Mojang will probably win as is.

Yeah, this just smacks of Zenimax's lawyers having nothing better to do and doing the legal equivalent of trolling on a message board.

No, the ideal outcome would be the judge saying "This is bullshit" and fining Zenimax's lawyers a huge amount of money for wasting the court's time.

EDIT: Ninja'd

edited 5th Aug '11 4:16:01 PM by Reflextion

And a Judge doing that wouldn't be a good idea as is. They're supposed to be impartial, right? Fining a guy who technically isn't causing trouble by any means doesn't end well. Calling it a mistrial based on bullshit and just having everyone walk away is more than good enough. Let's not get greedy now.

It'd be funny, but impractical. The only good it'll do is maybe tell other people to have a fucking case before actually suing. Not "I think it might be a bad idea" or stuff like that.

It depends if they want a reputation for being laughing in the faces of jerkasses or not. I'd rather they not, since they should have more reasons to be respected. It's a pretty fickle problem in itself.

Regardless, I can't wait to see the outcome.

Bethesda's injunction against interplay failed...I guess now they're looking for a new target. Someone's gotta fund those Celebrity V As.

can you elaborate on why its bad, exactly?

its just, making people sure they actually have a case before trying to sue someone, instead of just thinking they do, seems like a good thing.

Next time they'll sue for the word "The" too.

It's bad for a Judge to act anything but impartial because that's part of the reason they're hired. They just can't say "Thanks for wasting my time" because why would you hire a person who doesn't actually look at the case carefully. While it's true that there's no real case here, that's just a poor response to ever give.

Don't get me wrong, it'd be funny to watch them lose epically. But Courts aren't meant to be funny. They're meant to be done by Order. That includes being respectful to all parties. Whether they deserve it or not.

Likewise, I do agree that they need to hammer brought down on them for being stupid, but I know why they can't just do that.

edited 5th Aug '11 4:57:49 PM by Hydronix

Well, the intention may be founded more on trademark defense then just a money-grab. For some reason defending a trademark from imitators now requires absolutely extreme and impartial defense or it could lead to precedent to allow genuine impostors leeway to get away with it.

Even so, they're trying to work with a word used in tons of games, movies, etc. "Scrolls" is not their word to even use. "The Elder Scrolls" is. It's not even a phrase or anything. I don't think it's just for a cash grab either, honestly.

Like when I noticed the Yu Gi Oh example, it was about confusing "Magic Cards" with "Magic Cards". This isn't even the same actual case. It's not the entirely same word. It's one word they didn't copyright, because they copyrighted the entire phrase.

Which is why they don't have a real case here at all.

I think they need to at least look like they are defending their trademark.

I know Games Workshop (maker of Warhammer 40,000) as of late has been targeting small fan sites because the way British trademark law works, if they don't defend their IP other people have the right to use it or something.

Does it make it right? No. But it offers a perspective to understand where they are coming from, even if it's a less-than-stellar point.

edited 5th Aug '11 5:34:57 PM by MarkVonLewis