Bethesda's Parent Company Tells Notch 'Scrolls' is Off-Limits

Scrolls is a terrible name for a game.

It's not like many people ever call the Elder Scrolls games by their full name. Most of us know them as Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim - and those are the names they will be remembered by.

This, along with the way Beth has dropped the ball on Fallout Online, really goes to show how much of joke the Zenimax legal department is.

bunch of dead Jewish guys rise from the grave and sue Bethesda for ripping off the Dead Sea Scrolls

@Haru48: @JustinAquarius: To be clear: Bethesda the developer is not pursuing this, it's the company who owns Bethesda.

@Aronman789:    Why do you hate him?

It's doubly ridiculous when you take into account all the nice things Notch said about Skyrim. Business as usual I guess.

bunch of dead Jewish guys rise from the grave and sue Bethesda for ripping off the Dead Sea Scrolls

Thankfully this will clear things up with the people who were like "OH SCREW BETHESDA THEY SUCK."

This is just a ridiculous thing for ZeniMax to pursue. I see no real point in it at all.

Even with the fucking sentence in its own paragraph stating that this is Zenimax and not Bethesda, there are still people who can't/don't read and are blaming Bethesda.

Keep on keepin' on, internet.

@sionweeks said:

How can someone confuse Minecraft and Elder Scrolls because of a Minecraft in game item? So someone is playing Minecraft and the see a scroll so they think it's Oblivion? So retarded.

Did you even read the article? Nothing to do with Minecraft. Its about their new game called Scrolls

http://www.zenimax.com/contact.php

I confuse God of War and Gears of War all the time because 2 of the words are the same. Are they in the same universe? How do they connect? Boy this sure is confusing.   

they seriously can't just think of another name?

Scrolls of Trenching: The Edge of War
 

@LiquidPrince

Repost:

You can't fucking trademark regular words... I'm gonna go and trademark "The"... and make trillions of dollars...

I sent them this. It won't matter though:

Good afternoon,

As a loyal fan of Bethesda Softworks, and by proxy, Zenimax's media conglomerate, I am saddened and disheartened at the low attempt to litigate against Markuss "Notch" Perrson, of "Minecraft" fame, over his alleged breach of copyright by using the word "Scrolls" in an upcoming game.

I would imagine that any competent legal team would know that according to the 2006 Supreme Court decision Planesi v. Peters, a single word can generally not be considered for copyright.

Trademarks, of course, are a little difference, but usually the company needs to provide evidence that a single word in the phrase epitomizes your brand (e.g. APPLE computers.)

Scrolls, in a no way, epitomizes the brand of your game franchise, only the combination of words "Elder Scrolls," does.

Your lawsuit is low, unwarranted and morally despicable.

The game industry should be working together to provide the greatest benefit to your consumers, but your actions do nothing but divide and anger them. These actions soil your name, and the integrity of all the developers/publishers under your umbrella.

If this litigation does not cease, I will regrettably not be purchasing any further products that bear your companies name.

Sincerely,

REDACTED

Notch sounds like a total hippy in this story. It's kinda funny.

@GreggD said:

Notch sounds like a total hippy in this story. It's kinda funny.

I thought he always sounded like a total hippy.

If this is the precedent now, why stop at "scroll"? They'd have to sue every other game that wants to have a "V" or prevent any company from using the word "the" or perhaps sue so companies can't use the word "atmosphere" because of its likeness to the word "skyrim." 

@morecowbell24 said:

they seriously can't just think of another name?

they shouldn't have to.

bunch of dead Jewish guys rise from the grave and sue Bethesda for ripping off the Dead Sea Scrolls

BULL SHIT

@ryanwho said:

I confuse God of War and Gears of War all the time because 2 of the words are the same. Are they in the same universe? How do they connect? Boy this sure is confusing.   

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

In the end of God Of War III, Kratos leaves the world very, very fucked up, so the people who survived needed to find new ways to live, and they developed tecnology very fast becuase of this crisis. It was the only way to survive. Since they were Greek, they also developed ways so people could get stronger faster(Steroids, which explains why Marcus Fenix is so strong.), and since this world was fucked up, they tried to look for others. When they finally got to another planet, they named after the first god who was killed by Kratos.(Sera, the homeland of the Locust, is "Ares" spelled backwards.). 

Wait. You were not being serious? ...Sorry.

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

Scrolls of Trenching: The Edge of War

@LiquidPrince

said:

Repost:

You can't fucking trademark regular words... I'm gonna go and trademark "The"... and make trillions of dollars...

If you want, we can partner up. I was thinking about picking up "Of". If we work together we can rule the world!

Count me in! I will trademark the verb "to be".

I need to see a Banana Expansion to an Elder Scrolls game.

I sent them this. It won't matter though:

These actions soil your name..... 

@ajamafalous said:

Even with the fucking sentence in its own paragraph stating that this is Zenimax and not Bethesda, there are still people who can't/don't read and are blaming Bethesda.

Keep on keepin' on, internet.

Amen.

No one wants Notch's card game in the first place.

ZeniMax. Those bastards.

I sent them this. It won't matter though:

Sincerely,

REDACTED

@patrickklepek:

"He actually proposed a compromise where Mojang AB wouldn't place any words in front of the name -- i.e. Scrolls: The Banana Expansion." I think you mean e.g. not i.e. here.

Pulled from Wikipedia:

ZeniMax Media was founded in 1999 by Bethesda Softworks founder Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman. Weaver's vision was to use Bethesda Softworks as a hybrid-media company which would create cross-media properties for a diverse range of different platforms. Weaver brought Altman on board as CEO, contributing his stock in Bethesda Softworks so that the new shell company, named ZeniMax Media, would be able to obtain funding. Weaver moved to a non-operational role in 2002.

And a bit about the current CEO, Robert Altman (also pulled from Wikipedia):

Altman is a lawyer. He became part of the company BCCI. During his time there he was accused of helping the business buy an American bank and lying to US regulators about it. In 1992, he was indicted for eight felony charges in New York. Altman maintained that he himself was duped by the bank. He was acquitted of all charges, though he did agree to be banned from banking to settle a civil suit by the Federal Reserve.After leaving the practice of law, Altman became chairman and CEO of ZeniMax Media.

As Notch has already mentioned this might just have been an automated response by Zenimax Media's legal department after seeing the trademark application. Hoping that they will 'see the light' and stop this bullying nonsense.

Silly as this all sounds, we should remember that this is less Zenimax begin assholes and more the trademark laws being kinda effed. If a company wants to have any hope of securing its trademark then they need to attack any possible infringement. It's not a guaranteed thing like copyright; if you don't defend your trademark you lose your trademark.

Chances are this will end up a non-issue. This kind of stuff probably happens all the time behind the scenes.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet as I haven't had the opportunity to read through all the comments, but most websites that are reporting this are stating that Bethesda is the one responsible for this. I think its pretty awesome how Patrick pointed out that it was ZeniMax, not Bethesda, that was responsible. That is all.

Lawyers being lawyers. Besides, who the hell calls it The Elder Scrolls? Every single person I know refers to them as the subtitle, Daggerdale, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. If it was called Skyrimcraft of the Scrolls of Eldritch, then maybe they'd have a case, but srsly.

@jorbear said:

@GreggD said:

Notch sounds like a total hippy in this story. It's kinda funny.

I thought he always sounded like a total hippy.

You may be right about that. I don't follow Notch's blog, or any of his internet contributions or interviews, so I don't really have an idea of his ego or personality.

A plausible theory I saw on Reddit is that Zenimax need to send this letter out to Notch to say "We care a lot about our copyright and franchises". It's apparently to make sure that if someone ever does come out with a fantasy game called "Scrolls of the Elders" that Zenimax can sue them and can prove that they previously defended their copyright. It would seem to fit with Notchs suspicion that it is simply automated lawyer work and that its not serious. Not my theory but it would make some sense since this seems to have come out of the blue.

@Milkman said:

@Warchief said:

Seriously Bethesda?

Let's read.

"To be clear: Bethesda the developer is not pursuing this, it's the company who owns Bethesda."

Thank you.

There really needs to be international laws preventing this. I'm so tired of blatantly unfair TM/CR/Brand confusion issues.

@PXAbstraction said:

@M16MoJo said:

@Milkman said:

@Warchief said:

Seriously Bethesda?

Let's read.

"To be clear: Bethesda the developer is not pursuing this, it's the company who owns Bethesda."

Thank you.

It's the same company. Bethesda has been a division of ZeniMax since their inception. In other words, they were created by ZeniMax.

When SONY takes action, it is not the PS division, it is SONY. There IS a difference, and there IS a seperation. Bethesda is ONLY a developer and ZeniMax is the over arching company that funds their projects and I assume publishes and distributes then as well. Is id also responsible? Zeni bought them. Is it the same thing?

@PXAbstraction said:

@M16MoJo said:

@Milkman said:

@Warchief said:

Seriously Bethesda?

Let's read.

"To be clear: Bethesda the developer is not pursuing this, it's the company who owns Bethesda."

Thank you.

It's the same company. Bethesda has been a division of ZeniMax since their inception. In other words, they were created by ZeniMax.

Actually it's the other way around. Zenimax was created by the Bethesda founder about 15 years after he created Bethesda.

I have never ever heard Elders Scroll being called "Scrolls". Nobody says "let's play Scrolls!" or "Let's play that Scrolls game!". People either say Elder Scroll OR use Daggerfall, Oblivion, Skyrim etc...

You can't copyright this word. That would be silly. It would be close to the whole Edge stupidity.

Not the most professional thing to do.

@PXAbstraction said:

@M16MoJo said:

@Milkman said:

@Warchief said:

Seriously Bethesda?

Let's read.

"To be clear: Bethesda the developer is not pursuing this, it's the company who owns Bethesda."

Thank you.

It's the same company. Bethesda has been a division of ZeniMax since their inception. In other words, they were created by ZeniMax.

Actually it's the other way around. Zenimax was created by the Bethesda founder about 15 years after he created Bethesda.

Aaannnd there goes my goodwill towards Bethesda.

So Todd Howard is suing Notch? What a jerk!