Was my thought as well, but remember that Arkane actually hadn't had a full project since 2006 (Dark Messiah of Might & Magic) and were forced to do contract work (like helping out on Bioshock 2) in order to survive. So if the claims are true, they wouldn't had little choice but to accept Bethesda's contract just to do work.

Bethesda isn't new to doing weird catch 22 contracts though, you might remember the whole thing about Obsidian not getting paid bonus's for Fallout: New Vegas because the Metacritic score was 1 point too low.

This is bullshit. If I try to trademark a product called "silly bike" does that mean I trademarked the words "silly" and "bike"?

A more apt comparison would be if you tried to trademark "bike".

http://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/trademark/appletmlist.html

Oh yeah, I forgot about that part of the story.

Why ? there is nothing wrong with trademarking the name of your games.

Trademarks are limited in scope, if he managed to trademark the word "scroll" it wouldn't mean that nobody else would ever be able to use the word "scroll" without asking for his permission, simply that nobody would be able to release a game called "scroll". Trademarking the name of your game/movie/etc... is something very common, it's not that different than reserving the DNS name for it.

He did try to trademark "Scrolls", but I'm not sure why you see it as an issue. There is no issue with trademarks being single, common words, as long as the context of the trademark is properly defined. For instances, Microsoft's trademark on "Windows" is in the context of software so it applies only to software products and you won't see MS causing any problems for those selling actual physical windows. Same with "Apple". The application for "Scrolls" was similar- the context of the application was for electronic entertainment (and if memory serves a few merchandise tie-in items that Notch had planned). There is an issue if someone is trying to trademark a common word while using it in a descriptive sense, but none of that was going on here.

Also, keep in mind that the purpose of trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion, and the likeliness of confusion is a key consideration in any trademark dispute case (this is why you still have both Apple Records and Apple Computers, despite the many lawsuits between them).

well but at least dishonored could slap the name "bethesda" on the advertisement, which probably boosted their sales by 50%. so its all good in my book.

From what I've read he did try and trademark "Scrolls" which is precisely what sent Bethesda's lawyers into a feeding frenzy. I don't see how that makes him particularly terrible, mind. Not unless he would then do a Langdell. Which is something that would seem out of character.

Well, I just thought it was rather cheeky to trademark "Scrolls" when there already were games called "Elder Scrolls".

Personally I think that all single common word trademarks should be invalidated. Cheeky, yes. But anything more than that would depend on his intent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvJtSx0_VlQ

Bethesda are lying scumbags? No way!

Welcome to 10 years ago
EA: Fat albino midget that nobody likes.

Activision: Military dude that drives around the neighborhood, asking people for a ride, then raping them in the car with his crowbar after making so many promises.

Bethesda: EA's fat boyfriend that drives a moped.

Capcom: Girl that sells cookies door to door in the neighborhood. She was kidnapped and raped at the house with the sign "Resident Evil 4 & 5."

Nintendo: Asian guy that's crying in his window because people stopped visiting him.

A quick search about those devs + rejected milestone showed up.... absolutely nothing but recent rumors / allegations following the story of Bethesda trying to play hardball with Human Head.
I'm not claiming it isn't so or defending Bethesda. But no source at all or even a small indication from one of those devs in all those years, IS pointing towards conspiracy theories...

iD, owned by Bethesda, registered the trademark "Rage" despite the existence of Primal Rage, SpeedRage, Streets of Rage, Turok: Rage Wars, Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage, The Simpsons: Road Rage, Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage, Kendo Rage, Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Rage of Mages and Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees. How cheeky of them, right?

No, I don't think so. Registering a trademark for the title of your game is what you're supposed to do (Notch's lawyers actually chewed him out because he didn't want to register Minecraft, but he relented and applied for Minecraft and Scrolls together to save making an extra trip). Registering "Scrolls", had the application been successful, would give them exclusive rights to use the word "Scrolls" as the full title of a game, as well as some minor variations, like perhaps "The Scrolls" or "Scrolls 2: Oh No! More Scrolls!", but not exclusivity over any title with the word "scrolls" in it because that's a single common word so there's only so much protection a trademark would offer. It wouldn't give them rights over the name for books, movies, company names or almost anything else unless they added those to their application, and even then the applicability would be limited.

(I hope SimonG pops around - he would no doubt have an opinion far more informed than mine)

I'm not sure how you could construe applying for the trademark as "cheeky" at all, unless you're suggesting that he persuaded Jakob Porsér to choose that name in the first place while planning to make a play for Bethesda's trademark rights all along, which is... possible, but so far-fetched that I don't find it plausible at all.