Minecraft creator offered to change Scrolls title in Bethesda Softworks lawsuit and was refused

By Adam Rosenberg October 4, 2011

the elder scrolls 5: skyrim

For those who haven’t been following the Bethesda Softworks/Mojang legal news, here’s a quick recap: Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson was hit with a lawsuit a few months back from Bethesda Softworks. The Elder Scrolls developer claimed that Mojang’s upcoming digital card game Scrolls had a title that consumers could potentially confuse with its own Elder Scrolls games.

That’s the lawsuit, in a nutshell. There have been numerous developments in the ensuing weeks, with the most recent being that official court proceedings will move forward. Notch has taken to his blog as a result, stepping in to offer up some new information about the goings-on that we haven’t been privy to.

The Minecraft creator explains that the Mojang team originally filed for the Scrolls trademark at the same time a Minecraft trademark was filed as well. When Bethesda first approached the studio, Persson admits that he actually offered to change the game’s title. “We offered both to change the name to “Scrolls: ” and to give up the trademark,” he writes.

Bethesda apparently refused this offer and moved forward with the lawsuit. Which is a little bit confusing. As Notch writes: “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.”

As a rabid fan of both Elder Scrolls and Minecraft, I find this whole situation to be incredibly upsetting.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

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