It's been an emotionally tumultuous few months for gamers. Mojang (beloved indie studio responsible for Minecraft) and Bethesda (beloved major studio responsible for The Elder Scrolls series) have been squabbling over the word "Scrolls," the proposed name for Mojang's upcoming title, and us impressionable young consumers have been caught in the crossfire. Bethesda said the word infringed on its Elder Scrolls trademark, Mojang naturally disagreed, and Bethesda ended up taking the issue to court — ignoring Mojang's offer to settle the dispute in a Quake deathmatch. Well, now the lawsuit has been settled, according to a series of tweets by Mojang's Notch. The agreement, according to Notch, is that Bethesda keeps the trademark, Mojang gets to use the Scrolls name for its upcoming strategy RPG, and that Mojang won't create an Elder Scrolls competitor using the name. From what we can gather of Notch's tweets, it also sounds like no money changed hands.
AND!! We've settled with Bethesda! Yaaaay! <3
— Markus Persson (@notch) March 10, 2012
Monday morning Bethesda confirmed the agreement, adding some details.
Under the terms of the settlement, all rights to the 'Scrolls' trademark transfer to Bethesda parent company ZeniMax. The company in turn licensed the 'Scrolls' mark to Mojang for use with its existing Scrolls digital card game and any add-on material it makes to that game. The terms of the settlement bar Mojang from using the Scrolls mark for any sequel to the current card game, or any other video game.
"We are pleased to have settled this matter with Mojang amicably," said Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax. "The Elder Scrolls is an important brand to us, and with this settlement we were able to protect our valuable property rights while allowing Mojang to release their digital card game under the name they preferred."
Reached for comment Monday afternoon, a Bethesda spokesperson declined to save if any money changed hands in the deal.