In 2007 Bethesda Softworks bought the Fallout license from Interplay for $5.75 million dollars and an agreement was that Interplay only had the rights to develop a Fallout MMO and it had to be in beta by 2010. Clearly the Fallout MMO “Project V13” hasn’t gotten off the ground yet and Bethesda threatened Interplay with a lawsuit in ’09 because PV13 hasn’t gotten that far.
Bethesda really seems to be going off the deep end as they are claiming Interplay violated the agreements that were confirmed on when Interplay sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda three years ago. According to Bethesda Interplay only has the rights to use the Fallout name in the MMO. Nothing established in the Fallout Universe can be used by Interplay since they don’t own them anymore. Here’s a sample of the document.
“To effectuate the transfer of the Fallout Intellectual Property to Bethesda, Interplay assigned all trademarks and copyrights associated with the Fallout games to Bethesda as part of the APA. Specifically, Interplay transferred to Bethesda the following copyrights and trademarks:
Copyrights:
- The Fallout Logo
- Fallout and Fallout 2 Character Art
- Weapon and Item Art
- Cutscene Art
- Interface Art
- Loading Screen Comic Cart
- Loading Screen 3D Art
- “PIP” Boy
- World Bible
- Background Source Materials
- Copyright Registration No. PA-886-144 for Fallout
- Copyright Registration No. PA-931-744 for Fallout 2: a post nuclear role playing game
Trademarks:
- FALLOUT
- FALLOUT 2
- FALLOUT TACTICS
- BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL
- Registrations and Applications for FALLOUT in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa and the international registration for FALLOUT under the Madrid Protocol. “
