I have no clue who Bethesda is, but if they took him up on the offer it would be great PR in the eyes of gaming(?) consumers. It would show they're cool and don't take themselves too seriously. They'd certainly win cool points from me.
Right. But, Bethesda already have a stellar reputation in the gaming community, their "The Elder Scrolls" series is many many orders of magnitude more well known than Mojang's upcoming game "Scrolls". The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the most anticipated games this year.
Mojang and Notch have far far more to gain from this than Bethesda do.
it goes without saying that a 17 year old series is more well known than a new game. on the other hand, i have never referred to "The Elder Scrolls" as just "Scrolls". i've called it "Morrowind" or "Oblivion" and i'll probably refer to the new game as just "Skyrim". if i saw a game that was just called "Scrolls" i would not confuse it with Bethesda's games.
I'm not saying you would, I'm saying PR wise Mojang and Notch have everything to gain from settling this matter of law in a game of Quake, while Bethesda has very little.
Bethesda being the company responsible for the Elder Scrolls (Morrowind, Oblivion and now Skyrim, amongst others), and for Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
Do it, Bethesda.