Markus "Notch" Persson, the maker of Minecraft, says his company Mojang volunteered both to drop the trademark request for the title of their upcoming game "Scrolls" and to add a subtitle in order to to avoid being sued by Skyrim juggernaut Bethesda, but that Bethesda refused. He shared this fact in response to a piece on Kotaku today that analyzed the ongoing battle between the gaming favorites.
From Persson's blog:
I feel the need to clarify a couple of things:
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.
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.
Kotaku compiled a collection of the legal documents from the case (though they are in Swedish). Find them here.
A Short Response [The Word of Notch]
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