A Swedish court denies Bethesda’s request for a preliminary injunction against Mojang and its new game Scrolls.
Mojang and Bethesda – actually its parent company Zenimax Media Inc. – have been posturing for awhile in their dispute over the Scrolls trademark, but stuff got real late last month when it became clear that no hand-shaking, back-slapping, “we’re all friends” deal would be reached before it all wound up in court. And while they’re a long way from any kind of resolution, the scoreboard is already lit up, with the first point going to Mojang.
“We won the interim injunction!,” Markus “Notch” Persson tweeted this morning. “We can keep using the name ‘Scrolls‘. ZeniMax/Bethesda can still appeal the ruling, but I’m very happy. :D”
The reality of the situation is a bit more nuanced than that. According to the ruling [or, more accurately, the English language summation] the court denied Zenimax’s request for an interim injunction against Scrolls, which would have prevented the further use of the Scrolls name by Mojang until the case is actually decided. Win or lose, the ruling would not, and does not, signify any kind of conclusion to the matter; it’s just one step, and a fairly early one, in the process.
It does appear to be a good sign for Mojang, however. Because requests for interim injunctions come early in the game, decisions on them are made with less evidence in play and therefore a lower evidentiary threshold. Despite that, the court ruled in favor of Mojang, saying that while there are similarities between The Elder Scrolls franchise and Scrolls, there are also significant differences, and the intended audience for these games are likely to be aware of these differences and, more to the point, unlikely to confuse them.
Bethesda has three weeks to appeal the ruling.
via: Minecraft Forums, thanks to James Raynor and Woem for the tip.
Published: Oct 18, 2011 02:48 pm