14 DAY TRIAL // The creator of popular indie game Minecraft and of the upcoming Scrolls title, Markus 'Notch' Persson, has cleared a few things up in regards to the pending lawsuit Bethesda is filing against him and his studio, Mojang, over the use of the Scrolls trademark, which is too similar, according to Bethesda, to its The Elder Scrolls franchise.
While trademark disputes aren't rare in the gaming industry, Bethesda actions against Mojang and its upcoming Scrolls title did raise a few eyebrows, as plenty of gamers easily distinguished between the new indie project and Bethesda's long running The Elder Scrolls series, which is set to gain its fifth installment, in the form of Skyrim next month.
Now, just as the lawsuit is going to court, Minecraft creator and Mojang boss Markus 'Notch' Persson revealed some interesting details about Bethesda's actions before filing the lawsuit.
According to the independent developer, he offered to drop the Scrolls trademark application and even add a subtitle to the game to avoid any misunderstandings, but Bethesda didn't want any of it.
"I feel the need to clarify a couple of things," Persson said. "We realized we should apply for the trademark "Minecraft" to protect our brand. When doing so, we also sent in an application for "Scrolls". When Bethesda contacted us, we offered both to change the name to "Scrolls: [some subtitle]" and to give up the trademark."
"They refused on both counts," he continued. "Whatever reason they have for suing us, it's not a fear of us having a trademark on the word "Scrolls", as we've offered to give that up."
This puts Bethesda in a really bad position and might seriously tarnish its reputation, as it could have easily avoided going to court to settle this dispute.
Still, seeing as how Minecraft has earned Persson a huge amount of money, he isn't expected to give up without a fight, so the lawsuit is going to be interesting, to say the least.