Really? I've obviously been out of this. How do you guys find them?

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

Click on search marks -> New User Form Search (Basic) -> Type Skyrim

All three of those, except for the third one down, is a trademark by Zenimax for games, game related products, and strategy guides and manuals and what not.

Can we search for specific companies?

For a basic list of patents, you can click http://tess2.uspto.gov/ , click on "Structured Form Search", and use (with quotes) "Zenimax Media" for the "Search Term:".

You can't directly link on their site because they automatically cut your login off to save server memory. That link just leads to a screen that says "This search session has expired. Please start a search session again by clicking on the TRADEMARK icon, if you wish to continue."

That's why I said how to search for them, since that is the only way.

I'm alright, I can wait.

Lol...so much for making it easy! :facepalm:

On zenimax's list they have included the shivering isles, oblivion, tina and lulu(dead), bethesda game studios, kotn, skyrim, and a whole lot of weird ones like mud duck.

Edit: lol, don't forget giant monster news! Should be a great game!

Those are all the trademarks owned by Zenimax (which includes more than just games), as well as the records of trademarks they have since let expire. Many of the "dead" trademarks are cancelled games.

As someone wisely said before. Its not because they renew the trademark, that they ll have to annouce the game.
IF the drademark is not let down, then you have something the enjoy.
But why it implies announcing the game is beyond my understanding.
Its just pure illogical hope.
Since we know nothing about it, the game could be on the drawing stage. Announcing something that is not even 2 years from possible release will bring uneeded pressure. Better let it dormant. The fire won t die anyway.
Even i who hate oblivion, and will look at TES 5 expecting the worst. Would be interested to know something when annoucing, be it now or in 2 years.

Bethesda has been renewing the trademark over and over again, and it expires at the end of July as they can't renew it again. The fact that they're renewing it means that they have the intention of using it, but to do that they have to announce the game. If they thought they wouldn't be able to announce it, they wouldn't bother renewing it and would just let it die. And the fact that it expires in July means that they have to announce it before the end of July or else it will expire, and they'll have to register it again. But registering a trademark and getting it allowed takes several months, and I don't think Bethesda wants to wait that long.

So no, it's not "illogical hope," it's actually very logical.

It depend, if the game won t be even ready in a year or 2, why the rush on the trademark ? AFAIK, i may be wrong, its not because you have a trademark that you must announce a product with its name. There a so many registered trademarks never used and renewed in hope they worth something someday.
Renewing a trademark is not an "intention to use" is simply a " i don t want a jerk getting it cause i MAY WANT use it sometime".
Now lettinga trademark down is a clear sign: " i don t care anymore".

We're just going to have to agree to disagree I guess, I don't feel like debating semantics right now. :shrug:

This has been gone over before by another person. The reason Mordobb, that the likelyhood is high for the game to be announced soon due to the trademark expiring without filing an intent to use (which would be more than obvious to their intentions) is because allowing the trademark to expire would allow someone or some company to come in and take the trademark. Since Bethseda has obviously shown extended interest in the name "Skyrim" and because they have renewed it to the maximun times they can, one can assume they may possibly working on the next game named as such.

A company can come in and take the trademark when it expires and sell it back to Bethseda for tons of money, especially if Bethseda has already vested a ton of time and effort into creating said game. If Bethseda has been working on the said game for a while, then allowing the trademark to expire is risky. Personally, if I noticed the trademark expire, I would think hard about taking the trademark from them. Yes it's a risk, but due to the fact they'd shown repetitive interest in the name, it would make much sense especially if registering a trademark doesn't cost much. The return would be very great if such a risk proved accurate.

For this reason we hold hope the announcement is soon. Yes, it is true, that if they never even started on it, which is very very unlikely, (after all, what the heck are they doing over there if they aren't working on another project!??!?) that they could let the trademark expire with minimal risk. But all other evidence noted here by stain and antibody have shown the chances are very very high that TES V WILL be announced soon.

If the trademark expires, it goes to the other company fighting for it: http://www.skyrim.com/, I believe.

Bethesda then changes the name of their game to Dawnstar or some other major city from the province, ala Daggerfall, without any issues whatsoever.

Anyone else notice at the end of the "TESting Your Knowledge" blog that it's stated "To the rest: you have one more chance to win on Friday. Make it count."?

Does this mean there will be no more trivia questions after Friday, or is it just simply stating that there will be another chance this Friday (and not suggesting any finality)?

They aren't fighting over the trademark, if they were, Bethesda wouldn't have gotten an NOA. If Bethesda lets the trademark expire, they can't change the name to anything without trademarking it first, and that would take months.

Haha, there's a wi-fi company that wants the trademark???

Regarding the second part of u're statement, its a lot harder to change a name of a game that's been years in development than just going through and editting references to it. It could be the main focus of their plot, and changing the name could break it enough so that the story needs revision. Or, if they've already started (emphasis on STARTED) to file marketing paperwork and contracts regarding advertising products, or extras, or artwork, it can prove to be more trouble and money than they might want to spend. None of us can tell how far along the game actually may be. It's possible they haven't gotten to the point where a name change would be difficult, but if they have, they will not want to have to change it if they can help it.

I have a feeling the second Elder Scrolls novel will be announced by the end of the last trivia question. It doesn't make sense to me just to have these random events of ES trivia and then it just ends without anything significant.

PLEASE!
Developers, i want tes 5,oblivion is super game!
sorry for my english

If it were to continue until after Friday, I'd have wrote it differently.

"one more chance" implies "one last chance"

If it were to end after other trivia questions, it would have probably been written like: "You've got another chance on Friday." or "Friday's your next chance."

Think about it this way, a teacher gives you a test every so often, and they say "You have one more chance to pass the test on Friday. Make it count." And you know that you have to pass 1 test a year to pass the grade. (unrealistic, I know, but it symbolizes getting the book.)

Seems like it's your last chance, it implies that it's your last chance, BUT it isn't definite.

Hope for the best (they announce something), but prepare for the worst (they continue them or nothing happens at all).

The word 'penultimate' also implies that this was the second to last question, the one this Friday being the last.

i pretty much expect them to reveal at e3. its been roughly 4 years since OB. i no they were working on dlc and later fallout, but ive gotten the message tht the teams are different for working on dlc, and especially for fallout. tht means theyve had time to work on story, art, and whtever else. after completion of fallout i think theyve then been going full thrusters on their next big game being ESV. as its such a big game, i dont no why theyd miss out on an event like e3 unless they plan for a late 2011 release which would mean they were prob working on it for like 5 yrs. tht seems extra long to me but not impossible. since tht is a long time then i was justified in saying ill forget about ES for a while. tht doesnt mean i dont like ES though as tht is the impression u seem to have gotten.

It would, yes. And with the game likely being years away, that's not going to be a problem for them.


'Skyrim' will only be referring to the province the game takes place in, which is certainly not going to be a title so heavily tied into the plot that another title can't replace. If game manuals, strategy guides, and merchadise have already been put into production then that would be a problem. However, if Todd isn't lying through his teeth, then they're pretty early on into full-scale game development, and a long way from any paperwork.

Not saying it's going to happen. Just pointing out that if the trademark does expire... that's probably not a big issue for Bethesda. Either they pick it back up in several months, or grab a new one if Skyrim gets claimed.

Maybe, maybe not. Bethesda announced Morrowind and Oblivion 1-2 years before they released it, so they could technically afford not to announce it so early. But on the other hand, they likely had reasons for announcing it so early, and it's probably because the earlier they announce it, the longer they have to generate hype.

This is how I see it:

Bethesda recently renewed their subscription in January, just a few weeks ago. So they're obviously keeping it live for a reason. If Bethesda was going to let it expire, why would they have renewed it as recently as January? You might say so that nobody else can file for the mark. But if the trademark expires, they'll have to file for a new one anyway, so why renew it in January if they were just going to let it expire in July? If they were going to let it expire, they would not have renewed it, and the trademark would have went dead. It would have saved them a few months if they just let it die in January instead of July, because they could file for the trademark again earlier. The only explanation that makes sense, imo, is that, in January, they knew they'd be able to announce it before it expired so they renewed the trademark, and intend to announce it before the trademark expires on July 31st. And as long as they announce it, the trademark wont expire for a long while.