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

  How the fuck can you claim copyright to the word "Scrolls"? There needs to be legal repercussions for when lawyers fish like this. Shame on you, Bethesda.

Kind of seems fair enough to me. It's not about trademarking "Scrolls", it's just about avoiding confusion in the marketplace,

Kind of seems fair enough to me. It's not about trademarking "Scrolls", it's just about avoiding confusion in the marketplace,

@Drebin_893

Kind of seems fair enough to me. It's not about trademarking "Scrolls", it's just about avoiding confusion in the marketplace,

Theres no confusion, if you get The Elder Scrolls mixed up with a card game called Scrolls, your an idiot.

@Matfei90 said:

@jaks said:

How the fuck can you claim copyright to the word "Scrolls"? There needs to be legal repercussions for when lawyers fish like this. Shame on you, Bethesda.

Don't you people read the article? Zenimax, not Bethesda did this. Bethesda Game Studios has nothing to do with this action.

Splitting hairs. They all form part of the same organisation - there is no meaningful seperation.

That is so stupid. I could see having a limit set at like 2 descriptive words, like Elder & Scrolls. But something like "The Scrolls" should be allowed.

This also reminds me of the time Spike Lee tried to sue the pants off of Spike TV for using his first name. There are too many uses of the word spike to be considered copyright. Spikes can be of many things.

Scrolls can be many things as well. For instance, a scroll is length of paper which may or may not be attached to some cylindrical weights. Scroll is also an action meaning to go across. In computer terms, you scroll up/down for the most part. Why is it now that word Scroll is being copyright claimed. I don't see this litigation getting anywhere.

It just opens a can of worms that ought not be open.

I don't associate "Scrolls" with "The Elder Scrolls" in fact, I don't even think many gamers associate "The Elder Scrolls" with their respective games. I think of them as Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc...

hey ehm, wasn´t like morrowind, at least the world, based on something called  "dungeons and dragons" ?  
And Zenimax is being a b*tch about the word SCROLLS? 
 
haha /laughter

@ShaneDev said:

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.

You're right, except it's trademark, not copyright. It seems pedantic but there is a big difference. Notably, you don't need to defend or set a precedent for defending your copyright because that stuff is guaranteed. But you do need to do all of that for trademark. This whole thing is just Zenimax/Bethesda/whoever going through the motions. Like I said, this kind of shit probably happens all of the time. The only reason we know about this case is because Notch mentioned it on Twitter and people decided to blow it out of proportion.

Elder Scrolls....more leik ELDER TROLLS ahahAHAHA.....*cough*

EDGE

E D G E

S C R O L L S

SCROLLS

Also, I know this is Zenimax, but Notch had an interview with the director/producer of Bethesda. I was wondering if Elders Scrolls was going to get a bonus Minecraft token as their ten minute friendship was going so well. But a responsible parent should not want their child playing with foreigners that wear peculiar hats, and so they asked the headmaster of the school to send a letter to the little rascal telling him not to bring his cards to school if he was going to use the same name as was inscribed on the other's wooden sword. This upset the two recent friends, and the one with the cards wrote in the school newsletter about the headmaster's threat. Little card master decided that he had better change the name, he had no parents to support him, as he was an orphan. To ensure that they never do play together again, the parents paid the headmaster to threaten to expel little card master. All was not lost, the other children and their parents took notice and the nasty parents backed off because it would be quite a disaster if news spread ever more. Little card master continued to bring his cards and plastic bricks to school for the other children to play with, and boy with the pretend weapon secretly wished they could be friends, even though the foreign orphan was a bit weird, they shared some of the same visions. They were both great in their own ways, and have not brought their ultimate toy to school yet. Both children had amazing ideas of ways to play, and the other kids had more choices for play because the two were not allowed to play together. The boy with the pretend weapon had parents who could afford the remote control car, whereas the little card master had none, but they both never ran out of ideas to play. As an orphan, little card master was left to his own devices quite frequently, and this allowed him to sell lemonade at a significantly lower price than what the boy with the pretend weapon was allowed to, as his enterprising parents would tell him he would make more at a higher price point. Little card master's lemonade was significantly more popular as it was cheaper, and he eventually started making more money than the other boy, he even started selling lemonade that had not been made, creating a DIY system. Boy with the pretend weapon was forced by his parents to employ twenty other children to make the exact same lemonade, his stand's prices rose even more, as it now had to be split among the other twenty children. Boy with the pretend weapon wished he had as much as the little card master, but he wasn't jealous, and he was happy to be creating employment. Some of the clever children knew smaller teams were not just better for profits, but were better for quality of product, but they were quite confused as the boy with the pretend sword and his team made equally good lemonade as that made by the little card master. Word of mouth was little card master's way of advertising, but the boy with the pretend sword was told by his parents to cut into his profits to make cardboard signs that would be placed on every street sign.

I think I should write a book.

@Matfei90 said:

@Jimbo: Yes, but it's not like Todd Howard is sitting in his office with his panties in a bunch over what Notch is doing, it's the legal arm of the parent body.

Well yeah I was fucking about with the Todd Howard thing, obviously, but my point is that saying "Don't blame Bethesda, blame Zenimax!" is kinda dumb and splitting hairs. It doesn't really matter which company name the lawyers happen to have printed on their busines cards; they are acting to protect the organisation as a whole via protecting Bethesda's product. The legal team could just as easily have been working out of the Bethesda office if that's how the organisation had decided to structure itself and/or handle this issue.

It's like trying to defend a dude's foot because his foot had nothing to do with the murder he just committed. The seperate parts of this organisation are clearly far too interdependent (Zenimax lawyers acting in order to defend Bethesda's product in this case) for blame to be neatly assigned to one part alone. Somewhere within this organisation there is a structure or procedure (or overzealous employee) which has determined that somebody should throw down Tim Langdell style in order to protect the organisation as a whole - that shouldn't have happened, and imo, the organisation as a whole remains accountable for that until they walk it back (which I still think is likely) and fix whatever led them to believe this was a good idea in the first place.

"I agree that the word 'Scrolls' is part of that trademark," he wrote, "but as a gamer, I have never ever considered that series of (absolutely abysmal, pathetic excuses for) role playing games to be about scrolls in any way, nor was that ever the focal point of neither their marketing nor the public image."

Fixed the article for ya

Minecraft creator is a prick. 

Just call it 'Call of Scrolly 4: Elder Combat Oblivionrim.'

Just call it 'Call of Scrolly 4: Elder Combat Oblivionrim.'

Todd Howard probably has a massive headache right now. I recall him saying in an interview (pretty darn sure it was him) that he hates dealing with lawyers and all other kinds of business crap, and that he just wants to make games.

@AttroPheed said:

Just call it 'Call of Scrolly 4: Elder Combat Oblivionrim.'

People ask, "Should we?"  Lawyers ask, "Can we?"

Wait.

That series isn't tied to actual scrolls?

I enjoy the games Bethesda makes but I think they're being total D-bags about the word "scrolls", I know I wouldn't confuse his game with their series.

I hate news like this.

Bethesda has zero case.  This is stupid. 

Oh Bethesda, i can't stay mad at you, especially since you have a tight grip on my "gamer balls" with you owning the rights to Fallout and everything.

Well, honestly, I'm surprised he's gotten away with Minecraft.  

Scrolls is just part of the name. Does that mean you cannot have 'Elder' or 'The' in your game's name too?

The guys who are making Skyrim have zero say in this, don't take it out on them. Also, not Bethesda. This is Zenimax suing. 

Lorne Lanning: "Hello, who is this?"

Unknown voice: "Hi there, you asshole! We represent the Penguin Classics series, and we'd like to talk to you about your game, Oddworld, Abe's Oddysee".

Lorne Lanning: "Wut?"

Penguin Classics: "We've found that 'Oddysee' is just a little too similar to our book, Homer's "Odyssey", and we would like to request that you fuck right off with that name. Maybe you should try 'Abe's Journey' or 'Abe's significant misadventures'. Bye!

*PHONE HANGING UP NOISE*

Meanwhile, at Penguin...

*RING RING*

Penguin Classics: "Hello?"

Unknown Voice: "Hey jack-off, we've from 20th Century Fox and we want to remind you that Homer is a registered trademark of Gracie Films, and if you don't change your book's name to Dave's 'The Odyssey', we're gonna send a guy over to beat your ass to death with a shovel!"

*PHONE HANGING UP NOISE*

Zenimax and Bethesda are the same business is all but name - they were funded and are owned by the same key people and this is about a Bethesda brand name franchise. Notch might be trying to avoid drama by separating the Bethesda name away but this is definitely an issue which rests at Bethesda Games feet. If we were talking about an id property this discussion would be a different matter entirely.

"Scrolls." 
 
There.      I just cost Bethesda Billions in dollars by typing that.

@dagas said:

Scrolls is just part of the name. Does that mean you cannot have 'Elder' or 'The' in your game's name too?

I wonder what Lovecraft and the whole Mesopotamian people would've had to say about this. Elder Scrolls is clearly an infringement on Elder Gods

There will be no confusion when people go to buy The Elder Scrolls over some crappy game that might be called Scrolls!

There will be no confusion when people go to buy The Elder Scrolls over some crappy game that might be called Scrolls!

This is why we need a serial killer to exclusively focus on lawyers...

I also immediately thought of Langdell. However, he was a single asshole; it's hard to imagine such an assholeish decision passed through the entire company and no one stopped it in its tracks and called it on its bullshit.

Lorne Lanning: "Hello, who is this?"

Unknown voice: "Hi there, you asshole! We represent the Penguin Classics series, and we'd like to talk to you about your game, Oddworld, Abe's Oddysee".

Lorne Lanning: "Wut?"

Penguin Classics: "We've found that 'Oddysee' is just a little too similar to our book, Homer's "Odyssey", and we would like to request that you fuck right off with that name. Maybe you should try 'Abe's Journey' or 'Abe's significant misadventures'. Bye!

*PHONE HANGING UP NOISE*

Meanwhile, at Penguin...

*RING RING*

Penguin Classics: "Hello?"

Unknown Voice: "Hey jack-off, we've from 20th Century Fox and we want to remind you that Homer is a registered trademark of Gracie Films, and if you don't change your book's name to Dave's 'The Odyssey', we're gonna send a guy over to beat your ass to death with a shovel!"

*PHONE HANGING UP NOISE*

Scrolls sounds too similar to Skrulls. Someone get Marvel on this!

You know what I see ZeniMax's point. This guy makes sprawling open worlds. He is making something similar to an RPG evidently. In addition, he wants to call it Scrolls.

I would say to Markus "Notch" Persson, "Really dude, you are so married to the word Scrolls that you simply have to use it?" If I got that letter from Zeni might have proposed what he said he proposed, but I also might have said, "Yup, what I'm thinking about might hit too close for the corporate world to feel comfortable. Just call the game Scripture or Scriptorium. Both of which are BETTER NAMES! Thank me later Notch, you can have those names for free.

I would encourage Notch to fight for the name "Scrolls" if it wasn't for the fact that it's a pretty lousy title. And on top of that, changing it wouldn't cause any brand recognition setbacks since people bareley knows what the game is about or how it looks. Go with something more unique and recognizable.

This is stupid!  How is anyone going to confuse two different games.  I know the difference and that's good enough for me!

I can kinda understand why they are doing this. I mean Elder scrolls is their money maker and skyrim is coming out. Any threats must be eliminated! lmao

I can kinda understand why they are doing this. I mean Elder scrolls is their money maker and skyrim is coming out. Any threats must be eliminated! lmao

worst PR stunt ever