Notch Comes Up With New Plan To Settle Trademark Dispute: Quake 3 Battle

[qubit]

We noted recently the ridiculous trademark lawsuit filed by game company Bethesda against Markus Persson's company Mojang. Of course, Persson is better known as Notch, and Mojang is better known for creating Minecraft. Mojang is working on a new game called Scrolls and Bethesda is suing because it holds the trademark on Elder Scrolls, for its series of games. As we noted in the original post, the really amazing thing about Notch was how reasonable he had been throughout the whole thing, even talking up how much he liked Bethesda, and hoping this was just some lawyers over reacting.

Well, now he's decided to offer an "alternative settlement" technique. Rather than, say, trying arbitration or mediation, Notch is offering to settle this over a Quake 3 match. Seriously:

Remember that scene in Game of Thrones where Tyrion chose a trial by battle in the Eyrie? Well, let’s do that instead!

I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins.

If we win, you drop the lawsuit.

If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you’re fine with.

Now wouldn't that be fun?

Wow, if this happens it will be the coolest thing ever.

Techdirt

 

[mlee49]

Yeah I reddit yesterday

Always vote for the underdog.

 

[erocker]

Doubtful this will happen. Greedy corporation wants a piece of the Minecraft pie and a Quake 3 battle isn't going to cut it.

 

[qubit]

Doubtful this will happen. Greedy corporation wants a piece of the Minecraft pie and a Quake 3 battle isn't going to cut it.

Absolutely, but one can dream. lol

 

[Jegergrim]

This just made my day

 

[yogurt_21]

you can't take a part of a trademark and enforce it, bethseda has no case.

they tried this years ago when marx brothers title a flick "A Night In Casablanca"

Warner Bro's makers of the Movie "Casablanca" sued.

they lost handily.

You see they had trademarked "Casablanca" by itself. They didn't own the word. They simply owned the rights to produce movies with the solo title "Casablanca"

Their suit was at least closer.

Bethseda owns the right to make games with the title "Elder Scrolls"

they have no rights to just "Scrolls" it's so laughable that it's not.

It's like bethseda's lawyers are purposefully lying to bethseda just so they can get paid for losing a petty suit.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This would be the closest thing to a duel of yesteryear (with pistols). I'm all for it.

 

[Ray_Rogers2109]

Either way IDGAF. I torrented Minecraft and still wouldn't purchase the retail of it. I'm buying Skyrim later in the year anyway.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

It's like bethseda's lawyers are purposefully lying to bethseda just so they can get paid for losing a petty suit.

I think that happens a lot. Like an insane amount. Apparently more often than not when a copyright related lawsuit is filed it's not because the company noticed something they wanted to target it's because the lawyers did and advised them on a course of action. You could see this not long ago on OCC where the lawyers came in and steered senior into filing another lawsuit over an ex employee that he didn't really care about before they came along and advised him to sue. Now they get to make a fat chunk of change just shuffling paper work back and forth for a few months to a year.

 

[qubit]

@LAN: Yeah it happens a lot. And it's always some rich and powerful corporation picking on someone, usually weak and defenseless, like an individual of limited means, but not always. For example, Apple sued Samsung over their tablet device and actually won a temporary injunction against them. :shadedshu

 

[FordGT90Concept]

And most of the time, the big corps win because the little guy simply can't afford to fight it. So it's not like the big corp is right, they just have the resources to make themselves right no matter how wrong they are.

Yes, Mojang/Notch made a crapload of money from Minecraft but they still don't have much compared to ZeniMax Media.

 

[qubit]

And most of the time, the big corps win because the little guy simply can't afford to fight it. So it's not like the big corp is right, they just have the resources to make themselves right no matter how wrong they are.

Yes, Mojang/Notch made a crapload of money from Minecraft but they still don't have much compared to ZeniMax Media.

Absolutely. It amounts to extortion in such cases. :shadedshu

 

[Easy Rhino]

Either way IDGAF. I torrented Minecraft and still wouldn't purchase the retail of it. I'm buying Skyrim later in the year anyway.

honestly?

 

[qubit]

Either way IDGAF. I torrented Minecraft and still wouldn't purchase the retail of it. I'm buying Skyrim later in the year anyway.

Dude, it's best not admit this in public on TPU. Any talk of pirating, links etc is against the rules and gets you into trouble.

 

[Ray_Rogers2109]

Dude, it's best not admit this in public on TPU. Any talk of pirating, links etc is against the rules and gets you into trouble.

Oh sorry I thought I needed a large boat with a large crew to go pirating. Oh, pirating is defined now as sitting on my ass in front of a computer downloading shit?

 

[qubit]

Oh sorry I thought I needed a large boat with a large crew to go pirating. Oh, pirating is defined now as sitting on my ass in front of a computer downloading shit?

Hey, I'm with you buddy. I think this whole "pirating" branding is propaganda BS put out by Big Media to demonize downloaders. It's unauthorized copying, an infringement, nothing more, nothing less. Those claimed massive losses aren't even proved.

However, any such talk of doing this activity is against the forum rules and can get you infracted. I'm just trying to help you avoid this fate.

Finally, this is way off topic for this thread, so if you want to talk with me about this, please send me a PM, or discuss over at www.generalnonsense.net

 

[Easy Rhino]

Oh sorry I thought I needed a large boat with a large crew to go pirating. Oh, pirating is defined now as sitting on my ass in front of a computer downloading shit?

so you will pirate a $20 game that is being developed independently but you will pay $60 for a game developed by a large studio which is filing a BS lawsuit against the independent developer. #1 you shouldnt steal, #2 you should think about your purchases through before you say it doesnt matter to you.

 

[erocker]

Oh sorry I thought I needed a large boat with a large crew to go pirating. Oh, pirating is defined now as sitting on my ass in front of a computer downloading shit?

No boat will save you from the act of going off topic. Stay on topic mateys.

 

[qubit]

Uh-oh, maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

Markus “Notch” Persson thinks he made a strategic error

A day after challenging Bethesda Softworks to settle a legal dispute by playing Quake III, Minecraft's owner thinks he might have made a strategic miscalculation.

Notch Persson twigged, after he made his challenge, that Bethesda might actually give his outfit a good kicking. Bethesda sued the title of his upcoming game Scrolls.

However Persson realised that if it came to a Quake III tournament, Minecraft just might have to change the name. Bethesda owns the Quake brand and has several professional Quake players on its payroll. When picking the game, Quake III might have been a poor choice.

Persson says he has not heard back from Bethesda yet, he thinks a stunt like this could be a great way for the Fallout publisher to save face.

Oops.

I can just imagine the fallout [sic] from this as the losing side accuses the other of using an aimbot.

Fudzilla

 

[Easy Rhino]

i would imagine if bethesda really took the deal then they would hire the big guns for it. of course, i think most gamers would rather side with notch on this so who knows.

 

[qubit]

i would imagine if bethesda really took the deal then they would hire the big guns for it. of course, i think most gamers would rather side with notch on this so who knows.

Yeah, you bet they would. While deciding this dispute on a game sounds like it has a high cool factor, it's actually a pretty stupid thing to do and is best done as a plot to a cyberpunk movie. You can imagine a sci-fi twist, where the game weapons start to actually physically hurt the players and they're locked in a fight to the death, where giving up would actually kill the quitter!

 

[Easy Rhino]

...and in the game where the weapons start to physically hurt the players suddenly notch has the ability to build minecraft structures in the quake arena.

 

[Ray_Rogers2109]

...and in the game where the weapons start to physically hurt the players suddenly notch has the ability to build minecraft structures in the quake arena.

Then everyone becomes more autistic? SUUUUUUUUUUURE.
Why doesn't Notch just call his game something else?

 

[AphexDreamer]

He should call it Scripts...

Honestly Scrolls isn't that much of a rip off.

What if he wanted to Call his Game Elders... Would they get mad about that too.

Two of my fav game companies going at it... Come on guys !

 

[newtekie1]

Then everyone becomes more autistic? SUUUUUUUUUUURE.
Why doesn't Notch just call his game something else?

Because he shouldn't have to. Just because one company puts out a game that has a word in the title, that doesn't mean no other game ever can have that word in the title. Imagine if that was how things really worked. So Bethesda is saying that Notch can't release a game with the word "Scrolls" in the title because Bethesda has a game called "The Elder Scrolls". Ok... So by that logic no game can have the word "The" in it either, that really puts a cramp on the possible game titles, no?