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Don't let Bethesda (now owned by Microsoft) know or they get sued for using "Scroll" in the name as well.
Reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/03/16/bethesda-a...
Funny that Microsoft now owns both parties of the lawsuit.
Bethesda owns Id
Yes, and Microsoft owns Bethesda and Mojang, the parties in the lawsuit OP mentioned
Can’t there be a way for legal departments to file a notice saying:
“We’re aware of this entity that is not remotely relevant to our trademark but happens to contain some of the same letters and we have decided it doesn’t infringe, being so completely unrelated. We’re still defending our trademark but this isn’t violating it. Thanks and bye.”
that's what the different trademark categories are for
> Doomscroll may never rock. That could be a good thing; it could be too soon for a band that reminds us of our concentrated anxieties, the addictiveness of social media negativity.
God forbid art tackles unhappy things
I thought that little blurb in the article was a little out of left field as well, like the author felt a sudden urge to try and communicate that social media addiction is no joking matter.
Naming your game after a common English word (the word 'doom')? "Doctor, it hurts when I do that. Then don't do that." A metal band and a game are both entertainment, but different forms. Furthermore, the name Doomscroll isn't the same as Doom, as it consists of two English words. On top of that, fans of Doomscroll are unlikely to get confused with Doom the game. So, ID Software is in the wrong here... but they got deep pockets.
about as asinine as owning the trademark to “meta”
Guys. Today's I'd Software is owned by Zenimax (bunch of lawyers) which is now owned by Microsoft.
How the best shooter studio has fallen
Woah, that's insane. I would put down :tenbux: to help Doomscroll's creator fight this on their gofundme or whatever. Because what the actual hell?!
Who owns iD software nowadays? Reading the title I first thought John Carmack had started hunting down metal bands...
Microsoft, through ZeniMax.
*Doom's intellectual property owner
Maybe the Freud heirs can sue Id Software?
Would it make a difference if it were renamed "doomscroll" with undercase D. Just wondering where the DOOM begins and doom ends.
Edit: typo
Its really not a good name for a band.. Why do you want your music to remind people of scrolling social media?
"mom", "love", and "screen door" are registered trademarks of momcorp
Being entirely based in the music world, how in hell can they bitch about this?
No to mention that "doom" is an English word and it has to do with people scrolling never-ending pages of bad news on social media! It has nothing to do with the video game...
So you can't say 'doom' now?
Or 'bomb', obviously.
What?
You can't trademark it.
There's a British band called Doom, id/Bethesda/whatever doesn't care.
and the DOD shall never say command and conquer ever again, how fortunate for us
Is there even anybody left at id who was involved in Doom's development to justify the "Doom's Creator" in the title?
I had always assumed that id Software under ZeniMax is a completely different company, different people, different tech stack, different ethics. But as an outsider of course I don't know how much of this is true.
edit: Bethesda => ZeniMax
Ok, we've gotten rid of the creator from the title above.
> Is there even anybody left at id who was involved in Doom's development to justify the "Doom's Creator" in the title?
I assumed it was referring to John Carmack before reading the article.
Likewise but since it's now owned by Bethesda, no surprises here whatsoever. Bethesda has been awful since day one.
Carmack & Romero IP Law LLC
I’m puzzled as to who is acting when id Software, under Zenimax Media, under Microsoft, takes legal action.
Maybe it is all about Elder Scrolls...
I also got curious. These two people still seem to be there:
Doom is also the name of the franchise, not just the original game. And this franchise is still actively developed and maintained by ID Software. The latest incarnation is from last year. So technically the headline is not wrong.
And it seems with Kevin Cloud there is someone who worked on the original Doom 1, as also the latest incarnation Doom Eternal.
Yeah I read this and was like, "maybe say ZeniMax". I feel like they know what they're doing though.
Bingo. This is borderline clickbait. Just another instance of a giant corporation shitting on ordinary people. The real creators of DOOM are long gone, and wouldn't give a shit about something like this. Corporations, and lawyers, are as always a plague upon this earth.
> JB, the guy behind the Maryland Doom Fest, says he didn’t pursue the trademark after Id’s initial opposition. It would have been too expensive, he guesses.
Why do we still claim the world runs a democracy when the judicial system is clearly biased towards and abused by those who has the most time and resources to burn? The most mindblowing example I can think is when megacorps file bullshit claims that they know they would never win because they know the opposite party won't have the money to contest it.
Recently going through something very similar. I purchased a domain name for an app I was about to release, but it happened to conflict with a random German pharmaceutical drug for pets. There’s no industry overlap so I should be entitled to a trademark. But I got roped into a domain dispute case with WIPO for my .app domain. My lawyer said I could probably win the WIPO case, but the company would simply re-open the case in some other jurisdiction. Since my app is pre-revenue, I can’t really fight it. My lawyer recommended even though I was in the right, I should give up the fight because it could cost 100s of thousands of dollars with no guarantee of success.
The lesson I learned is that before purchasing a domain name, secure a trademark from the USPTO. It’s not cheap though. Can run $300 to $1000, which is nothing for a big corporation, but a big barrier for individual creators trying to get something off the ground.
This experience made me lose a lot of faith in “the law”. Rather than an level playing field among equals, it seems more like a protective moat for the rich and powerful.
That sucks. In my case I got a low 5 figure buy out offer which I figured I better take to not find what’s the next step. It was a useless blog which was using a part of a large entertainment company’s name
I think the bigger issues is that people like the legal system is inherently expensive, when often it isn’t. Although it frequently time consuming.
> It would have been too expensive, he guesses.
This attitude really bothers me. Why didn’t he find out how much it cost? It probably costs nothing to writing your own opposition and send it back to the trademark office. You’re only trying to convince an administrator, not a judge, and worst that can happen is you fail. But all you’ve lost is some time.
Most government processes are designed so it’s possible for a lay person to figure it out. The real trick lawyers have managed, is convincing us all that you can’t engage with government or the justice system without an overpaid lawyer.
Time consuming == expensive.
If you engage with the case and the legal system you aren’t at work, you aren’t developing your product/company, you aren’t spending time with your family. You spend you time doing something other than the thing you want to be doing, you sacrifice all the possible opportunities you could have had doing other things.
If you pay a lawyer or if you do it yourself it is expensive.
Even if you only spend half an hour writing an email, that’s time you’ve lost, and that time is more valuable to you on a small scale than the cost for the legal department of a massive company that can have someone writing emails all day and eating up all your time.
It doesn't cost anything to file a response to an opposition. Just deny all their assertions. I've been through the process for my own Trademark and was willing to fight a large gaming company up until discovery without a lawyer.
That said, you need to do your homework if you try this and it is a bit time consuming, but it was just a few hours of work for me to research and talk to a couple of trademark lawyers (for free) to get a very basic assessment of what was happening and how common opposition filing is. Responded on my own and the Trademark office was surprised that I had no lawyer.
BTW, filing an opposition is easy and costs almost nothing to do, so why wouldn't an existing trademark holder do it?
Because that's the way a lot of people want it just in case they become less embarrassed millionaires some day. You can never be sure!
Silicon Valley is a nexus for this kind of thinking but at least there's a decent chance of doing that if you're not stupid about it and just spend a decade or two here jumping from one failed startup to another until one sticks. But be very careful, the virtue police here claim they don't like job hoppers (as they themselves jump from one position to another).
As long as you're an at-will employee you owe nothing more than at-will loyalty. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise unless they pony up the cash upfront.
I've never seen anyone claim that the world is a democracy.
and all the lawyering talent is squatted by the wealthiest corporations, leaving very little competent representation for the rest of us