Even if Notch doesn't register Scrolls, he is still violating their trademark. That's what trademarks are for, ensuring that nobody else uses your name.
This is what people are debating here. The name of the game os "Elder Scrolls." Should they be able to block anyone from having a game with either of those two words in the title? It would be like someone making a franchise "The Dark Knight" video game getting sued by the makers of "Alone in the Dark" because the titles share the word "Dark." This is not to mention the fact that no one refers to any of the Elder Scrolls games by the name 'Elder Scrolls.' People call them by the release/episode names (e.g. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is just referred to as "Morrowind" far more frequently than "Elder Scrolls III").
[edit] Better example: Sid Meier suing Disney over a Pirates of the Caribbean video game infringing on his Pirates![1] game.
Actually that's the name of the game series and the sub-title of the games (and technically it's "The Elder Scrolls), the games are called Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. Or "The Elder Scrolls [game sequence number]: [actual game title]" if you want it in full. With [actual game title] replaced by expansion names for each installment's expansions.
I'd have thought the opposite would be a more accurate comparison: Disney claiming "Pirates!" as similar to/confusable with "Pirates of the Caribbean" (discounting any issues of who actually owns what trademarks in reality just now).
No mention of the issue is complete without a reference to Tim Langdell, and his hilarious suits against anyone using the word 'Edge' in their games[1].
I think it's more like:
"[...] that nobody else uses a term you have trademarked in a way that could allow consumers to be confused or misled into thinking that they (the non-registered mark users) are affiliated or speaking on your behalf"
In short, will normal people think "Wow, Bethesda is making something called The Elder Scrolls: Scrolls" or "Mojang presents: The Not-As-Young-As-They-Used-To-Be Scrolls: Get off my damn lawn! (in affiliation with Bethesda/Zenimax)"
It's entirely possible for different companies to hold a mark on the same (set of) words, as long as no opportunity for confusion arises. Thus, Apple (Computers) are distinct from Apple (Record Label), although there was some drama when Apple the former fired up the iTunes store and started to compete with the latter. I think they just threw money at it til it went away though.
I guess the trial question would be if the use of the word 'scrolls' in relation to computer gaming is sufficiently confusing, or whether people should be able to distinguish between "The Elder Scrolls(tm)" fantasy first-person RPGs, and "Scrolls" the trading/playing-card game.
As silly as the confusion seems to most gamers, a brief glance at http://scrolls.com could maybe almost be confusing to a newcomer.
You can't. Trademarks have domains in which they are functional. Microsoft owns "Windows", an English word, but only in the computer domain (whichever one that is). They do not own the word Windows. The system already does not let you simply trademark English words.
It should be called 'microsoft windows'. That way we can have 'Apple windows', 'digital research windows' and so on. Window managers are a class and you should not be able to monopolize a class name without some sort of addition.
>Window managers are a class and you should not be able to monopolize a class name without some sort of addition.
The Windows trademark is for the entire operating system product. It's not just for the window manager.
Keep in mind that trademarks are incredibly specific. Infringement only occurs if it's a similar product. For example, there is a recreational vehicle company named Starcraft that has been in business since the early 1900's. Blizzard made the real time strategy game called Starcraft. Both usages of the word "Starcraft" are registered trademarks, and do not infringe on each other.
"Hello, I have a problem with Nokia Photoshop not loading on my Fujitsu-Siemens Macbook Pro after installing the latest upgrade of 'Google Snow Leopard Windows'".
"Well i tried Adobegoogling it, Microsoftgoogling, Googlegoogling and Quorastackoverflowing it, but no clear solution was found. I am gonna consider buying the Virgin Atlantic Photoshop CS4 instead from the Walmart App Store"
