

Minecraft creator challenges Bethesda to winner-take-all Quake deathmatch - jaybol
http://boingboing.net/2011/08/18/minecraft-creator-challenges-trademark-belligerents-to-winner-take-all-quake-deathmatch.html

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kqr2
This reminds me of a story about Herb Kelleher, one of the founders of
Southwest Airlines.

    
    
      One outrageous incident was his arm-wrestling showdown 
      with the CEO of Stevens Aviation in 1992. Both Stevens 
      and Southwest were using the advertising tagline "Plane 
      Smart." To settle the matter, Kelleher suggested an 
      arm-wrestling competition with the winner keeping the 
      rights to the slogan. Kelleher lost the match, but the 
      event generated so much good will and publicity that 
      Stevens let Southwest continue use of the tagline.
    

[http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/hkelleher.h...](http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/hkelleher.html)

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sp332
I posted this video of that event yesterday, but it's funny enough to post
again: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwU9m4oCtRE>

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pseudonym
People like Notch continually prove and re-prove, to me, the fact that you
don't need a huge company, 3 million patents, and an army of lawyers to make
money.

Between things like this and his stance on piracy[1], it makes for a pleasant
counterpoint to all the depressing stories on Techdirt.

[1] <http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1121596044/how-piracy-works>

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citricsquid
It does however prove you have to either be incredibly lucky or talented to
make lots of money which is _not_ what a lot of people want to hear.

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latch
you forgot _work hard_

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phoboslab
It's incredible how Notch (the Minecraft creator) turned this lawsuit into a
huge PR campaign.

The smartest thing Bethesda could do is accept his invitation. Make it big.
Live broadcasting etc. There's so much to win for both companies, regardless
of the actual outcome of the match.

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DrHankPym
It's cheaper than litigation and just as predictable.

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sp332
Bit of blogspam, the original was posted yesterday with a lot of comments.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2895491>

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biot
Discussed yesterday from the original source:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2895491>

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plasma
I'm sure this would go down awesomely with the board.

Board: So why don't we have that trademark anymore? Bethesda: Oh we gambled
and lost it in a game of Quake 3 deathmatch ...

Seriously? :)

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zabraxias
There's a startup somewhere in this idea. I'd pay to be a spectator of this
match.

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MaxGabriel
Like justin.tv and teevox for Starcraft II?

teevox.com

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fletchowns
Justin.tv has a whole site dedicated to broadcasting video game matches now:
<http://www.twitch.tv/>

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leif
Quake champions, get ready to send your resumes to Bethesda. ;-)

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dave_sullivan
Haha, more lawsuits should be settled this way, that or thunderdome...

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Apocryphon
All software patent lawsuits should be decided through feats of strength.

