It seems somebody in the legal profession has been having bowls of pure stupid for breakfast. Bethesda’s legal team has sent Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson a C&D letter, claiming that he’s infringing an Elder Scrolls trademark.
Notch’s Mojang Studio’s follow-up to the insanely popular Minecraft, Scrolls, is a collectible strategy trading card game. It hasn;t got a release date yet, but it’s already gotten in to legal trouble.
“Just got a letter from Bethesta’s [sic] lawyers,” Persson said on Twitter. “They claim ‘Scrolls’ infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim.” “I still <3 Bethesda,” he said. “This is hopefully just lawyers being lawyers.”
Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: skyrim releases this November, and curiously, has very little to do with scrolls at all. Unfortunately, the legal muscling is probably necessary because of the bizarre intricacies of trademark law. It’s likely that Mojang’s “Scrolls†will be released with its title in tact, and that this is just a case of Bethesda demonstrating its willingness to protect its interests.
Either way, lawyers will be lawyers.
Source : Twitter
Last Updated: August 8, 2011