It’s got to be tough for Bethesda’s legal division. First Mojang’s victory in the “Scrolls” case, and now it has been revealed that the United Court of Appeals denied the right to appeal an earlier decision that dismissed an injunction against Interplay and their Fallout MMO. Bethesda and parent company Zenimax Media (the current rights holders to the Fallout license) initially brought the case against Interplay (the former rights holder) claiming it went against the agreement reached when the license was sold.
The deal that would eventually bring Fallout 3 to the world also gave Interplay the right to make Fallout Online. According to Bethesda’s original testimony, the company was restricted to only using the term “Fallout”, but began production using game assets from their newly acquired franchise. Bethesda’s copyright infringement restraining order against Fallout Online co-developer Masthead Studios was also denied last month.
(via Joystiq)
I am waiting for a judgement being handed down to Bethesda that states that they can never sue over the rights to the Fallout MMO ever, since they have lost all their other appeals.
Let Interplay develop the MMO of the series that they created in the first place! If it doesn’t workout, then so be it, but that should be decided by the market.
I dont really understand why they think they have the right to sue. They bought the rights to Fallout except the rights to make an MMO. Interplay is making an MMO. Where is the problem?