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Post by Dragon Zachski on Aug 29, 2011 20:29:58 GMT -5
www.omgn.com/news/2011/08/07/bethesda-sues-mojangBasically, Mojang is making a card and board game called "Scrolls" and applied for a trademark for that name. Bethesda comes along and is like "That's infringing on our trademark, The Elder Scrolls" ...No. If the card and board game had been called "Elder Scrolls", then you might have a problem. "Scrolls" or "Elder", however, you do NOT own. What's next? Suing Harry Potter over the Elder wand? On a side note, Notch suggested that they settle this with a Quake 3 match.
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Post by Art Vandelay on Aug 30, 2011 0:32:35 GMT -5
That's been in Notch's blog for almost a couple of weeks now.
That said, Bethesda really has a big bucket of fuck all of a case here. A trademark doesn't mean exclusive rights to every single word and letter that makes up said trademark so there's no way Bethesda will actually win. Granted, they may be going for a bit of a legal fee based financial war of attrition rather than an actual legal victory, but I'd say it's probably a bit late for that, given how popular Minecraft is right now.
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Post by MaybeNever on Aug 30, 2011 0:41:20 GMT -5
A slightly curious aspect of US copyright law is that it compels a holder to actively protect his copyright or risk losing it (or something). So this might be a consequence of that rather than general corporate ass-hattery. But Eric can probably shed a little more light on the topic from a legal perspective.
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Aug 30, 2011 1:21:36 GMT -5
A slightly curious aspect of US copyright law is that it compels a holder to actively protect his copyright or risk losing it (or something). So this might be a consequence of that rather than general corporate ass-hattery. But Eric can probably shed a little more light on the topic from a legal perspective. So they should probably get up off their ass and start suing Harry Potter for use of the Elder wand then, if they want to protect their trademark so much. |
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Post by Yaezakura on Aug 31, 2011 3:31:19 GMT -5
A slightly curious aspect of US copyright law is that it compels a holder to actively protect his copyright or risk losing it (or something). So this might be a consequence of that rather than general corporate ass-hattery. But Eric can probably shed a little more light on the topic from a legal perspective. While it's true that if you do not actively seek to protect your copyrights that you can lose them, this doesn't really apply. You can't copyright the word "Scrolls". Scrolls are something that exists. Now obviously, you can copyright the name of a game called "Scrolls", and no one else could use that as the name of a game. But that's it. They could still call it Parchments. Or include the word with other words. But they couldn't just call it Scrolls. Hell, if I went and developed a free-roaming western RPG and decided to call it "The Scrolls of the Elder Gods", Bethesda would still have no legal case, because their copyright is specifically for the title "The Elder Scrolls". |
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Post by DarkfireTaimatsu on Aug 31, 2011 3:48:31 GMT -5
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Post by Yla on Aug 31, 2011 6:33:56 GMT -5
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Post by Vene on Aug 31, 2011 10:22:57 GMT -5
I like how your link is broke, but I fixed it anyway. |
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Post by Amaranth on Aug 31, 2011 12:47:23 GMT -5
Granted, they may be going for a bit of a legal fee based financial war of attrition rather than an actual legal victory, but I'd say it's probably a bit late for that, given how popular Minecraft is right now. But they're not going after Minecraft. At one point, the publisher was looking to fold over this. Though it seems since that point, they've thrown their hat in with Notch. A win on this front has little to do with Infinim...Errr...Minecraft. Even if it is merely a war of financial attrition. |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Aug 31, 2011 12:54:32 GMT -5
Granted, they may be going for a bit of a legal fee based financial war of attrition rather than an actual legal victory, but I'd say it's probably a bit late for that, given how popular Minecraft is right now. But they're not going after Minecraft. At one point, the publisher was looking to fold over this. Though it seems since that point, they've thrown their hat in with Notch. A win on this front has little to do with Infinim...Errr...Minecraft. Even if it is merely a war of financial attrition. I'm not saying Bethesda is going after Minecraft, I'm saying the money Minecraft is bringing in should make Mojang easily rich enough to deal with any legal expenses, rendering a financial attrition approach completely pointless. |
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Post by Amaranth on Aug 31, 2011 15:39:07 GMT -5
I'm not saying Bethesda is going after Minecraft, I'm saying the money Minecraft is bringing in should make Mojang easily rich enough to deal with any legal expenses, rendering a financial attrition approach completely pointless. Assuming they're willing to put that money behind a completely different project. |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Aug 31, 2011 15:43:11 GMT -5
I'm not saying Bethesda is going after Minecraft, I'm saying the money Minecraft is bringing in should make Mojang easily rich enough to deal with any legal expenses, rendering a financial attrition approach completely pointless. Assuming they're willing to put that money behind a completely different project. I'm not really sure there's much of a choice here. Lawyers need money in exchange for their services just like everyone else. |
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Post by Amaranth on Aug 31, 2011 18:18:15 GMT -5
I'm not really sure there's much of a choice here. Lawyers need money in exchange for their services just like everyone else. Which would not be needed if they opted to fold, due to cost-benefit issues. This seemed to be the crux of the argument only a few posts ago, I don't know what has changed that you would feel that the only way forward is to defend it. It's incredibly likely that Bethesda is out to make the game unappealing to produce due to potential legal costs, since as you said, they have no foot to stand on in an actual trademark suit. |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Aug 31, 2011 18:37:13 GMT -5
I'm not really sure there's much of a choice here. Lawyers need money in exchange for their services just like everyone else. Which would not be needed if they opted to fold, due to cost-benefit issues. This seemed to be the crux of the argument only a few posts ago, I don't know what has changed that you would feel that the only way forward is to defend it. It's incredibly likely that Bethesda is out to make the game unappealing to produce due to potential legal costs, since as you said, they have no foot to stand on in an actual trademark suit. As far as I know, Mojang aren't going to fold (I think Notch said as much on his blog) so it would seem that option is off the table. I suppose Mojang could be taking a similar route strategy by not folding and hopefully convincing Bethesda that either way the game will go ahead, the only variable of concern (to Bethesda) being Bethesda's legal expenses. Since as I mentioned before Mojang certainly has the money to win the case thanks to Minecraft's success, it's certainly possible that Bethesda'll be the one to back down. |
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