http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/10/notch-and-bethesda-settle-on-scrolls/

Apparently they have come to an agreement. Mojang is not allowed to make any games that directly competes with The Elder Scrolls named Scrolls. Which they were not doing anyway, so Mojang lost nothing in this case.

Didn't this lawsuit die a lot earlier than this?

They lost the trademark. I don't know if that means that Bethesda will be able to claim royalties from this or not.

No, the lawsuit went on, there was just a (I don't know the proper English word for this, so I'm improvising) preliminary result that allowed Mojang to continue work on their game.

Right, felt like it did die though, because there was a long period where nobody gave a crap and nothing new came from the lawsuit, and then this sudden announcement that it was indeed dead.

I read it... and I'm still lost.

That reminds of the Apple legal dispute.

I mean, why would Apple Macintosh ever want to sell music....

I think the term is injunction.

(Hey! Law and Order reruns work!)

So, right off the bat, another cement block was added to my foundation of complete bafflement over international trademark law.

Just to make things clear: I think of it as I would of a wise and honest ruler... who likes to bathe in cow excrement and uses a javelin instead of a fork at dinner.

How absurd.
Love how the previous news is about Skyrim, though:D

Is this the same fellow that stands in a pool of water on a mountaintop in a thunderstorm wearing a copper colander on his head and shouts "All gods are bastards!"?

Speaking of gods, I thought there was a specific copyright law in the US that prevented anyone from claiming ownership of common words, such as "god", or "Scrolls".

A common word can become a trademark; there is no such law. However, it can only be a trademark with respect to a particular type of goods. Thus "Apple", a common word, can be a trademark for, independently, a line of creative works consisting principally of music, and a line of electronics consisting principally of computers and portable devices.

A Bethesda trademark on "Scrolls" would not extend to a calligrapher who inscribes scrolls, for example. But a game called "Scrolls" is an apple that falls much closer to the tree, and it is not clear that Notch could claim a trademark when Bethesda already had long prior use in the computer game market.

RPS is right, in general: the settlement is one that could have been arrived at long ago if both sides had employed common sense and fair dealing instead of pigheadedness and lawyers.

Maybe they should have called it "More Than One Scroll", or "Scroll Plus More". Or maybe "Scroll Cards". "The Scrolly Scrolls". Or "This is not your father's Elder Scrolls game".

Personally I've never heard or seen anyone refer to the Elder Scrolls as "Scrolls" - it's always the Elder Scrolls or TES, or more specifically, the particular game itself (Skyrim, Oblivion, etc.), and the idea that someone could confuse the two is, to me at least, a bit insulting. Just goes to show what they think of the intelligence level of their customers, haha.

By the way, I found a company called "Scrolls Unlimited, Inc." They better watch out.

Or how about the Dead Sea Scrolls? If anyone should be suing, it should be them.

I'm being ridiculous,of course. But so are they.