Ah, I didn't realize...

Still a sucky game though

I'm afraid when the suits get involved things like this do get silly. You see the suits make money out of just this. It's nonsense to a consumer, but it really does happen. I mean why are apple trying to trademark "app store", what do they gain from it? It's because the suits told them to. Notch all but admits that this whole trademark thing began because he was advised to do it.

I agree it's stupid, just please don't believe that this world isn't.

One of the arguments used by Notch is that Scrolls will be distributed only online.

I can imagine this will come back to haunt them eventually.

it would be hilarious if notch loses.
then Sega will use that case against bethesda's Rage (since they have streets of rage which is actively being sold)
and sega would definately win more money than bethsa would get from notch.

Maybe Bethesda is establishing a defensive precedent just for this occasion? Stupid unwillingness for Q3 or name change settlements becomes reasonable strategy if you see it like that.

In trademark law, if you don't actively defend your trademark, you lose it. This may (and probably is) just a trademark defense tactic.

For instance, when the pimp on 7th Heaven says "Oh, get a Kleenex," ABC gets a letter either saying "no no" or "see you in court" from the Kleenex peeps so that Kleenex can retain their copyright.

Maybe Elder Scrolls is being a little over-zealous because they've seen some other minor infractions and their lawyer has recommended a formal suit in order to defend the trademark from inching its way into a legally lost category.

... But by naming the product, they're promoting "Kleenex", not using it for profit.

Plus there's cases where a copyrighted or trademarked word becomes so ingrained into popular culture, the word is used to refer to all similar items. Like Kleenex or Band-Aid.

That's the problem. As soon as a court says that the brand is part of ordinary speech, they lose their trademark. Kleenex and Band-Aid spend a lot of time sending letters b/c everyone knows that they are common usage words. But they have to show due diligence in defending the copyright.

...but 'scrolls' IS a part of ordinary speech -__-

It's like Capcom suing someone who uses the word "fighter" in their fighting game.

Although part of ordinary speech, it's not often found in a title or series of role-playing magical fantasy games. I doubt they'll win the case, but it's probably not about winning, just about protecting.

Without protecting, you may start seeing more Scroll games. And after a while, The Elder Scrolls might not be able to hold a trademark -- or unable to protect against The Eldest of Scrolls: Skytop. Now, I doubt it'd happen, but it has before and so people often protect their trademarks on the cautionary and agressive side.

Concerning Capcom -- if they had started suing for Fighter being in other fighting game names, there may have been fewer clones or different naming schemes just to keep out of court.

It's not the friendlies tactic, but it works.

BTW, I found wikipedia had lots more to say than I ever knew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark