With the trademark lawsuit over, The Elder Scrolls 6 is back on track

Here’s a tale of two franchises for you. On the one side of the intellectual property debate you’ve got Redfall, a series of post-apocalyptic books written by Jay J. Falconer for BookBreeze.com. On the other hand Darryl, you’ve got Zenimax and Bethesda, whose next Elder Scrolls game is supposedly carrying the title of Redfall as well.

So what happens when the two clash? You get a copyright dispute that could have been avoided, is tied up in red tape if it goes to court and even if it went that far, it would be years before the case would even begin. Zenimax didn’t have a lot of options on their plate if they wanted to keep using Redfall, with Bookbreeze and Falconer likely winning any case in court thanks to them having claimed ownership of the title years before The Elder Scrolls 6 was even a twinkle in daddy Bethesda’s eye.

Fortunately, what could have been a massive delay for The Elder Scrolls 6 is now a non-issue as the trademark dispute is over. In a short statement, Zenimax and BookBreeze revealed that a deal had been worked out, presumably for a whole heap of Drake coins. Cheers, GamaSutra:

ZeniMax Media Inc. and Bookbreeze.com are pleased to announce that they have amicably resolved a pending trademark dispute related to the Redfall trademark. While the specific terms of the agreement are confidential, the parties believe that resolution of the matter is mutually beneficial to both ZeniMax and Bookbreeze.com and their respective fans.

So what has happened? GamesRadar has a great breakdown on the legalese here, as it seems likely that both parties have now reached an agreement where Zenimax is basically allowed to use the Redfall trademark so long as they make a hefty licensing payment to BookBreeze. It’s likely a big single cheque that the company has written so that they never have to hear from BookBreeze again, who won’t pursue the matter any further.

So everyone wins, and maybe now we’ll finally hear some news on what’s going on with The Elder Scrolls 6 at E3 2019. If you’ve been following the site and you’re a gambler, that means that this article should give you a complete row on your Bingo card, because this is pretty much how I’m ending every article for the next two weeks.

If you’ve got the other and sadder bingo card, here’s where you also put a stamp on release date to be determined, because the next Elder Scrolls is still a long long way away. Like Japanese Sakeru Gummy long:

Next level Japanese ad pic.twitter.com/uZZoe9WNqD

— Mothership.sg (@MothershipSG) May 2, 2018

That game is a long looooooooong way awaaaaaaaaaaaay…

Last Updated: May 28, 2019