Bethesda has lodged a complaint with Swedish courts against Minecraft creator Mojang over a trademark filing earlier this year. The trademark is for the title, "Scrolls," which Bethesda feels is an infringement on their trademark for, "The Elder Scrolls." The entire drama is laid out in a post on the blog of Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson.
Notch explains that after filing for the trademark, Mojang was contacted by lawyers representing Bethesda who desired more information about the filing and suggested the potential conflict. Mojang attempted to strike compromise at some point in their communication (though Notch seems unclear as to when) but negotiations seem to have fallen through. Today, Mojang received notification from Bethesda's attorneys that paperwork and fees have been filed to move the trademark complaint forward.
This almost certainly isn't about preventing Mojang from releasing their game under the name, "Scrolls." Far more likely, it's an effort by Bethesda to protect their trademark in the long term. By filing the suit, they're demonstrating that they have attempted to enforce the legitimacy of their claim to the trademark. This creates a paper trail which they can point to as evidence to support later trademark disputes, showing that they have defended their rights.
In other words, Bethesda -- and its parent company, Zenimax -- is possibly not a horrible, evil company who wants to keep the indie developer down by drowning them in unnecessary litigation or demanding total control over common words and phrases (in this particular case).
Bethesda are suing us, here’s the full story! [The Word of Notch] [Image]
Contest:
4:40 PM on 08.05.2011 | 
Now.
Just because they're possibly doing it to establish their trademark, doesn't mean that they're not being a horrible evil company here. It's the equivalent of shouting profanities at a sweet old lady to establish your freedom of speech.
No, just no.
I'm even a big a fan of minecraft.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/microsoft-patents-ones-zeroes,599/
I think he was being sarcastic
In other news: Nintendo sues Team Meat for having a platformer with "Super" in the name and it looks similar to one of the "Super"s in one of their games.
If that is somehow what is magically happening here.... maybe next time they might want to consult their PR department or at least warn them about their impending workload increase.
Still if this was as toothless as you make it sound I don't think we would be seeing it posted on the world of notch ..... we probably wouldn't be hearing about it at all.
"...who spend so much time achieving nothing"
Dude, you're talking about videogames. For 99% of them, you don't achieve jack shit.
So you don't see some sort of ending? Some sort of message telling you that you've achieved or accomplished something? Let me count the games which end...
I lost count.
Either there's more to this case that the press isn't aware of, or it just doesn't hold water. You can't trademark plain dictionary words.
Minecraft's Official release was going to be on 11/11/11 same time as Skyrim (It's been pushed back now). Considering how many 'preorders' Minecraft has (That's what is getting you into the Beta) It would of easily out sold Skyrim with it's now 3mil buys it may even be the biggest seller of the year, outselling even MW3 possibly due to the way it's worked.
Well played Notch!
Oh, I see what you're saying now. You don't like open-ended games. Get over it and play a game you like. It'll save you a lot of stress.
Seriously? The man didn't expect this much success, handled it quite well (making free and substantial updates for a game this universally well praised is fairly rare), still works on updating it personally while working on other projects...
He won the indie game lottery, and dared to enjoy the profit like most people would. Fuck him for his runaway success. I don't even play MC that much anymore, but claiming his work ethic to be 'lazy' is just dickish.
/accepttroll
If you trademark "Look Who's Talking Now, This Is Some Weird Shit" you shouldn't be able to stop someone from making a movie called "shit"!
Five bucks says this is over within the month.
Anyway, far be it from me to interrupt the cries of "BETHESDA ARE EVIL", but it does make sense, really. The Elder Scrolls is their big money-maker, their most beloved child, they're going to protect it as much as possible. Also, could've used a better name than just Scrolls for their game, but that's just me.
Bethesda needs to protect its copyrights, but a lawsuit isn't the only way to do it.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/06/14/notch-and-todd-howard-the-one-on-one-interview.aspx
Sorry, but Bethesda owns the right to "The Elder Scrolls". Not just "Scrolls". They might as well claim that they're going to offer a trademark dispute over the use of "Elder" or "The" in a title.
Bethesda? Understand something. If this harms Notch or Mojang, I'm gonna be buying Skyrim, and all of your other titles used. I don't like you enough to see you douche Penny Arcade and Minecraft out of their hard work thus far. And believe me, if Tycho says boo about this, you can probably expect a backlash, if previous movements are taken into account.