Court denies Bethesda preliminary injunction, again

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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In regards to Bethesda's appeal to a preliminary injunction on FOOL developer Masthead, no surprise here, it was denied, Gamasutra reports.<blockquote>This week, U.S. District Judge, the Honorable John F. Walter, denied the temporary restraining order requested by Bethesda against Interplay.

"Plaintiff has not demonstrated that it will be irreparably prejudiced if the requested ex parte relief is not granted, or that it is without fault in creating the crisis that requires ex parte relief," he argued.

"Indeed, Plaintiff was aware as early as February 2011 that Masthead was potentially infringing its copyrights... Yet, Plaintiff waited seven months to apply for ex parte relief."

He concluded, "The Court finds that Plaintiff unreasonably delayed in seeking relief, and that the emergency that allegedly justifies a TRO is self-created."</blockquote>Get better lawyers, Bethesda.
 
Reconite said:
When are they just going to give up and go home.
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Pretty sure that, at this point, they're just stalling until interplay collapses the rest of the way and it becomes a nonissue.
 
Nephilim77 said:
This is the beginnings of a Days of Our Lives courtroom drama.
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Oh no! Judge lost his grip on his gavel and it hit Herve in the head... how's he going to remember where he buried the lost Interplay gold legacy with amnesia? Wait a minute, what's Pete Hines doing here? Why, he's Herve's long-lost brother: the Third Caen. Oh no! Everybody watch out. Todd doesn't look like he's enjoying this turn of events, and and he's brandishing a gun. Several guns. And the Bloody Mess perk! Oh no!
 
@BN, when you say "get better lawyers, Bethesda", don't they already have the best lawyers they could possibly hope for? They don't have a case anyway, so as long as they're delaying, appealing and keeping the process going, Interplay is losing money on its lawyers that it could be spending on development of FOOL.

Since the real goal of Bethesda is to (obviously) make it so that Interplay lost everything in their agreement and doesn't get to make a Fallout game, it seems like keeping them in court and increasing the amount they have to pay for representation is the way to do it.

Bethesda knew Interplay was going under, so they bought a lucrative IP, and now are syphoning the rest of Interplay's funds out via the judicial system so that they can't ever stake claim to the franchise again.

Remember when they said that the only thing they were really licensing was the title "Fallout", because if they included any of the other hallmarks of the series it might confuse gamers? Come on. Standard stalling tactics.
 
Dont they have the system in theus also that the loser can end up paying the winners legal expenses within reason?

i belive it was last year bethsesa ending up paying some of interplays legal fees since the judge said it was a nuisance claim meant to incure unnnesesary legal fees on interplay
 
tunih said:
Dont they have the system in theus also that the loser can end up paying the winners legal expenses within reason?

i belive it was last year bethsesa ending up paying some of interplays legal fees since the judge said it was a nuisance claim meant to incure unnnesesary legal fees on interplay
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While that system does exist, it's not guaranteed. If you can "prove" (ie: convince a judge/jury) that what you were doing was necessary, the other party whose time/money you've wasted gets nothing. While it's possible that Interplay may recoup some of it's losses, it's certainly not guaranteed.

This is irrelevant anyway, as Bethesda is strapping Interplay's cashflow NOW, while the game is in development. If Bethesda staggers Interplay for long enough that they simply can't handle the development costs anymore, and then a year or so later they get that money back it won't matter anyway because FOOL will be dead.

It's lame, but it's true... And is also one of the oldest tricks in the book.
 
cunningandvalor said:
@BN, when you say "get better lawyers, Bethesda", don't they already have the best lawyers they could possibly hope for?
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No. Good lawyers would be chasing down Interplay's obviously bogus financing claims. They're making unsubstantiated claims about Masthead's side of the deal and then claim they have no knowledge of how much Masthead is investing or how many people work there. There is just begging to be shot down.
 
frosty_theaussie said:
Nephilim77 said:
This is the beginnings of a Days of Our Lives courtroom drama.
Click to expand...

Oh no! Judge lost his grip on his gavel and it hit Herve in the head... how's he going to remember where he buried the lost Interplay gold legacy with amnesia? Wait a minute, what's Pete Hines doing here? Why, he's Herve's long-lost brother: the Third Caen. Oh no! Everybody watch out. Todd doesn't look like he's enjoying this turn of events, and and he's brandishing a gun. Several guns. And the Bloody Mess perk! Oh no!
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In season 45, episode 10, it is revealed that it was all a dream. There were no Caen brothers, Fallout 3 was released as should, and the abomination that might have been FOBOS was aborted and buried with a stake in the heart.

On a serious note: anyone with a knowledge of the american legal system; can these kinds of more or less frivolous injunctions continue indefinetely?

Edit: typo
 
Nephilim77 said:
On a serious note: anyone with a knowledge of the american legal system; can these kinds of more or less frivolous injunctions continue indefinetely?
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No. The court already dismissed some of Bethesda's stuff as frivolous. Inevitably they'll start slapping down fines if you keep it up.
 
Brother None said:
Nephilim77 said:
On a serious note: anyone with a knowledge of the american legal system; can these kinds of more or less frivolous injunctions continue indefinetely?
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No. The court already dismissed some of Bethesda's stuff as frivolous. Inevitably they'll start slapping down fines if you keep it up.
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Thanks BN. For some reason I find that to be oddly satisfying. Maybe I can´t help touting for the little guy, even if they are, in this case, douchebags.
 
cunningandvalor said:
Bethesda knew Interplay was going under, so they bought a lucrative IP, and now are syphoning the rest of Interplay's funds out via the judicial system so that they can't ever stake claim to the franchise again.
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If that's true then Bethesda is genius
 
Not really. Unless the discount Herve gave for the rights to make FOOL was significant, which I guess it might've been knowing Interplay's way of doing business. Otherwise, it's just overly cheap.
 
I'm feeling very stupid (maybe it's due to it not being in my motherlanguage) for not "getting" a single thing which happens there aside from "Lawyers gonna Lawyer". :/
 
Surf Solar said:
I'm feeling very stupid (maybe it's due to it not being in my motherlanguage) for not "getting" a single thing which happens there aside from "Lawyers gonna Lawyer". :/
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Well, those are lawyers for you. To sum it up, the Judge said "stop pissing on my turf. Getting mighty tired of it."
Also, I´m not a native Englisher either. Once someone gets a clear verdict, I´m sure we´ll be told.
 
You are not alone Surf Solar, legal mumbo jumbo is a different language altogether. I can understand some of it in a very broad sense but that's about it.

Terms like "preliminary injunction", "temporary restraining order" and "ex parte relief" are as alien as hieroglyphs to me.
 
Crni Vuk said:
I guess one needs the head of your avatar to really understand it ... or simply be a lawyer.
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The thing in his avatar should be a lawyer. It'd be so good, it's plaintiff could murder they're wife and her lover and get away with it.
 
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