Brian Fargo's inXile registers Van Buren, Meantime trademarks

[sesom]

Yeah the big devils that can be angered with trademark snatching....

I wouldn't be surprised if inXile got sued. What was that I heard, that Bethesda sued people for using the word "scroll" somewhere in a trademark?

Why should they sue inXile? Tell me a good reason. Van Buren is the codename of a never made noncanon Fallout project. If Bethesda has nothing to do with it there is no reason to sue inXile for taking the trademark.

Scrolls, Yeah the timing of Mohjang was very off as they announced their game in the middle of the marketing campaign of a new elder scrolls. The Mohjangsters where sometimes very naive and didnt realize how big they have become. Now they are property of Microsoft .

 

[Nas92]

Why should they sue inXile? Tell me a good reason. Van Buren is the codename of a never made noncanon Fallout project. If Bethesda has nothing to do with it there is no reason to sue inXile for taking the trademark.

I'm not much of a legal mind, but I thought Bethesda has everything regarding Fallout. Meaning they can make as many Fallout games as they want and they control everything about the past Fallout games, published or unpublished. I don't know if that means a well-known codename for a major unpublished game in the Fallout franchise or not.

 

[sesom]

I'm not much of a legal mind, but I thought Bethesda has everything regarding Fallout. Meaning they can make as many Fallout games as they want and they control everything about the past Fallout games, published or unpublished. I don't know if that means a well-known codename for a major unpublished game in the Fallout franchise or not.

inXile has the right now to use the word "Van Buren" for a game title (haven't looked at the trademark details yet but I assume its about that). No Fallout connection there in any way. Van Buren is maybe well known in the community but no there is no way to sue only because of the simple name Van Buren. Where is the connection to Fallout if the game is about to uncover a fictional assassination of a president, or hunting dinosaurs in the town Van Buren Iowa? (I know I am a bit childish here) No lawsuit would ever made if this is the case for example.

If the actual inXile game includes a pipboy, vaultsuit, nuka cola... yes then there is a good reason if it is made without consense of Bethesda. But as I said earlier I dont think that Obsidian and Bethesda are surprised about this trademark fileing.

Elder Scrolls on the other side is a well known brand. So yes its not nice to sue someone who uses "The Scrolls" as title but in the middle of a marketing campaign lawyers would see clearly a point for unfair participation. Which it wasn't imo, it was typical Mohjangsters not thinking. Thats why I assume it got settled so fast. Yeah Zenimax lawyers aren't a nice bunch it isn't their job. But if you get at such a size such things happen and it means eat or get eaten (as I said Mohjangsters are now Microsofties they got eaten).

 

[Diospyros]

I think that even if they tried to apply Van Buren to the Wasteland Universe it might upset Bethesda as it would be too similar to Fallout, and they probably do own the rights to use Van Buren in that context. Just because you apply (or even get) a trademark doesn't mean it can't be challenged in court by someone that may have more claim to it.

I wonder if by chance they are going to do something with Arcanum. It could both mislead us (into thinking it is a post apocalyptic game) while also being an appropriate name. Here is my wild conspiracy theory type reasoning. Arcanum was set in a Steampunk type world, which is basically the industrial revolution in the 1800s. Martin Van Buren (who must be who the Fallout project was named after) was president of the US from 1837-1841. Arcanum was produced by Troika, a former Interplay spinoff, and Jason Anderson was one of the lead designers of the game. Troika were the developers of the Fallout Van Buren before they folded. Jason Anderson was involved with Inexile as creative director and Wasteland 2. The biggest flaw is of course that Jason has since left for Turtle Rock. But who knows if during his time at InExile if he had an idea to do a sequel or remake and Brian Fargo latched onto the idea. Another problem is that I think the rights to Arcanum are owned by Activision-Blizzard. Though if they don't want to do anything with it possibly they could try work with Leonard Boyarsky as an intermediary to obtain the rights.

 

[Eternal]

Alice saying "Curiouser and curiouser" is all I can think. I wonder where this rabbit hole leads, if anywhere. I want to think it's just red herrings to generate buzz and keep inxile in the news during the torment development cycle but I'm not sure.