Mojang & Bethesda Dispute Heading To Court

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Well folks, it’s official: Bethesda is taking Notch and his company to court over Mojang’s upcoming game Scrolls. It seems that Notch’s idea to settle this dispute over a match of Quake 3 didn’t take, because Swedish officials announced today that Notch will be seeing his day in court.

The dispute (now full-blown lawsuit) sees Bethesda requesting that Mojang change the title of their upcoming game Scrolls. Bethesda believes that people will confuse Mojang’s Scrolls with their Elder Scrolls series, so basically this lawsuit is being brought against Mojang in an effort to protect their trademark.

Whether or not people will actually confuse The Elder Scrolls and Scrolls is likely irrelevant here – trademark laws require a company to protect their trademarks at even the slightest hint of infringement or risk losing them, so this lawsuit might just be so be so Bethesda can prove that they’ve defended their trademarks in the past.

Still, even though this lawsuit might just be a formality, Bethesda says that they have comments from users that indicate some confusion between the two games. Mojang might just have to change the name of their game by the time everything is said and done, but they’ve said repeatedly that they’re not going to back down in the face of litigation, even against a company as big as Bethesda or ZeniMax Media.

So basically, get ready for a long and drawn out battle between Bethesda and Mojang. Really, I think that Mojang will come out of this lawsuit unscathed, but I’m no lawyer and whether or not they have to change the name of Scrolls rests with the judge.

What do you think? Does Bethesda have a case here, or are they just doing this so that they have proof that they’ve defended their trademarks in the past? Do you think Mojang will back down and settle, or will they fight Bethesda and their lawyers until the bitter end? Head down to the comments section and share your thoughts on what I think is a pretty ridiculous lawsuit.