Hacker News Reader

Comment by ArcticCelt | Hacker News Reader

>The original debate started when developer Mojang decided to make the working title of their new CCG-like game "Scrolls"

Not exactly. The debate started when Mojang decided to trademark the single word "Scrolls" and put themselves in a position where they could take to court game developers who want to use the word "scrolls" in the title of their games (or already use it). That's when Bethesda Softworks counterattacked aggressively.

During the whole process Mojang successfully managed to spin themselves on social news websites as the victims of a David and Goliath fight when they were in fact the ones who started the Trademark offensive.

View on HN

> Not exactly.

Not like your comment is any better. A critical part missing from it is that, soon after Bethesda indicated their displeasure, Mojang offered to drop the trademark application (and to move from just "Scrolls" to a composite title).

Apart from the trademark application (maybe, which they've yet to even remotely misuse or abuse with Minecraft, so I'd be more than willing to give Mojang the benefit of the doubt) the only actions I've seen them taking so far seemed to in good faith and in trying to resolve the matter as painlessly as possible for everybody (and somewhat humorously in the case of the Quake 3 match).

> and put themselves in a position where they could take to court game developers who want to use the word "scrolls" in the title of their games (or already use it)

Trademark law is nowhere near as insane as patent law, "scrolls" has been used numerous times as a sub-part of game titles (so the historical record is strongly against such a case), and the only people who have made those claims were trademark trolls (Tim Langdell) who got away with threatening people generally without needing to go to court.

> During the whole process Mojang successfully managed to spin themselves on social news websites as the victims of a David and Goliath fight when they were in fact the ones who started the Trademark offensive.

Please, how is trademarking the name of your next game a "Trademark Offensive"?

which they've yet to even remotely misuse or abuse with Minecraft, so I'd be more than willing to give Mojang the benefit of the doubt

Yes now. But they might be bought out.

Right.

In the event that its 4 (I think it's 4) founders (I assume they're co-owners, Notch could be the only owner, I have no hard info on the subject) decide to sell it (it's a private company so it can't just be taken over, and a buyer would need pretty good reasons to get them to sell, considering the founders are probably essentially set for life already) and that trademark law is as screwed up as patent law (it's not) and that the brand new acquirer has a trademark-troll streak, then it could become a risk.

We are pretty far from ArcticCelt's qualification that Mojang

> started the Trademark offensive

are we not?

Bullshit. Mojang was willing to drop that registration. Mojang and ZeniMax (well, their lawyers) were actually negotiating before they went to court.

And where do you get the crazy idea that someone with a trademark for “Scrolls” can successfully sue others with a trademark that also contains “Scrolls” in some way? What matters is whether customers might be confused.

Apparently, they wouldn't have to drop the registration, because it has been denied anyway by the USPTO. Also I don't understand why someone with the trademark on the game Scrolls cannot sue other games named Scrolls. It's the same reason why we don't have Teachbook, Faceporn or Lamebook. And that's the whole point of trademarks.

"Trademark offensive" is a somewhat coloured representation of the situation. See; http://notch.tumblr.com/post/8519901309/bethesda-are-suing-u... and http://notch.tumblr.com/post/10990169550/a-short-response

It has been shown before that single-word trademarks don't protect every phrase involving that word any more than a multiple-word trademark covers the Cartesian product of the words in the mark. In fact, the most obvious parallels to the scenario you describe are Edge Games' failed attempt at trademark trolling and the reaction of Bethesda (whose mark is three words long) to Mojang that's the subject of this article. Additionally, Mojang hasn't shown any inclination to test it out in the case of "Scrolls," so it's hard to see what grounding your comment has in reality.

The only real facts here are "Mojang decided to trademark … 'Scrolls'" (the "single word" bit is a stretch, as that isn't how trademarks work to my knowledge) and "Bethesda counterattacked aggressively." The rest of it is your spin, which appears to be based mostly on a fictional scenario in which Mojang started threatening people with suits rather than Bethesda.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com