Why CraftScape is known
as Minescape?
We named this game Minescape and have used that name publicly since 2012. In 2019 a different server launched under it. We applied to register the name in France on 8 March 2020; an application to register it in the United States followed on 15 May 2020, and was granted. CraftScape is the name we can market under while that stands.
TL;DR
We came up with the name
Minescape was our name, chosen in 2011 and public since 2012. It has been in continuous use by this project for fourteen years.
A second server took it in 2019
The other server launched 7 years after we did, under the same name and built on an old version of our Minecraft map, without our permission. They started claiming that they came in 2012 by using our map, our name, our videos and other online content based on our project claiming as theirs.
An old version of our map was stolen
The world that the other server was built on is an old version of our Minecraft map, taken from us and used as the base for theirs.
So we took a second name
CraftScape is a name we can market freely. Nothing in the game changed: same world, same account, same team. We have not stopped using Minescape and we have not given it up.
Name history
Every date here is either publicly checkable or our own record of our own use.
- 2011 We choose the name Minescape and start making OSRS-style MMORPG features in Minecraft. There's no other minecraft server / network with the name.
- 2012 The official & Original Minescape (by GamesLabs) goes public. The name has been in continuous use ever since.
- 2019 Another server launches 7 years after the original Minescape by GamesLabs, under the same name, on a stolen copy of GamesLabs map taken without permission.
- 2020 We decide to protect the name we had been using for 8 years with a trademark in France (the company behind the project - GamesLabs SASU is based in France) after an influx of complaints from players that they are being confused by other project. An application from the other side follows 68 days later.
- 2021 Both are granted: ours in France, theirs in the United States. Two registrations, 11 days apart, over one word. This does not impact us, as the United States allows first-use rights for us since we have been already using the name for 9 years. The other side has no first-use rights in France, where we are based, and we have a French registration.
- 2022 to 2024 The other server operators use those registrations to confuse, and scare content creators, and even players, threatening to have videos about our game taken down. The videos created by those creators are all legal and protected by the use of our Trademark.
- 2024 We start using CraftScape as a second name for the project so that the illegal threatening and scaring of creators & players can be avoided - no one deserves to be scared to play a fan made game.
The full story
The name was ours first, by seven years
We chose the name Minescape in 2011, while the game was still a prototype on an earth-shaped Minecraft map, and released under it in 2012. Over the following decade the game was ported twice, recoded twice and moved across three networks, and the name stayed the same throughout. It is on the 2012 release, on every version since, and on the shield in our logo.
That server did not launch until 2019.
The map
The world on that server was built on an old version of our original Minecraft map by GamesLabs. This is not two projects arriving at similar ideas. It is terrain we built, taken and used as the base for theirs.
We say that as the people who made it. No court has ruled on it, and we are setting out our account here rather than a judgment.
The models we paid for
Work by Sixbits and by Cookiesnom, two separate creators, is in use on that server - We bought those models and rights to use them from them under a commercial licence.
The same work is also published free under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, a Creative Commons licence whose NC term does not permit commercial use. That server takes money.
The obvious answer would be that the models were licensed separately, exactly as they were licensed to us. They were not. Sixbits has told us directly that they neither sold a commercial licence for that server nor authorised its use of the work.
Enforcing that licence is for Sixbits and Cookiesnom to do and not for us, and we are not attempting it here. We mention it because we are the party that paid.
The trademark
What we did not expect was for our name to be registered as a trademark by someone connected with that server. Ashley Thew, publicly listed as the founder of the MineScape studio in Auckland, applied for Minescape in the United States on 15 May 2020 under serial 88918770: eight years after we began using it, thirteen months after that server launched, and sixty-eight days after our own French application. It was granted on 21 December 2021 as registration 6592829. The same holder appears on EUIPO 018246664, UK00918246664, IP Australia 2239005 and IPONZ 1145667.
The dates are not a matter of opinion. Trademark registers are public, they publish the registrant and they publish the dates, and anyone can check them. What a register cannot show is why an application was made, and we do not claim to know that. What we can show is the effect. A name we had used since 2012 became a name we could no longer safely advertise under.
What we hold
We are not only relying on having been here first. GamesLabs SASU holds French trademark 4630711 for Minescape, applied for on 8 March 2020, registered on 10 December 2021 and, subject to renewal, in force to 8 March 2030.
In the United States, trademark rights follow first use of a mark in commerce rather than first arrival at the register. We have used Minescape since 2012, seven years before that server existed, and our position is that priority of use there is ours. That is a claim to unregistered rights and it has not been tested. We do not hold a United States registration yet, and we are still working on getting one.
Those are two separate grounds in two jurisdictions. They are why we have not treated the position as settled, and why we describe CraftScape as a marketing name rather than a replacement. We have not conceded the original.
Why creators kept asking us about it
The players / fans the issue landed hardest on were content creators. They were threatened, scared, had their videos taken down. Between 2022 and 2024 its operators used their registrations to pressure creators covering our game, threatening to have videos taken down despite the creators having the legal right to publish those videos under our trademark and first-use rights. Anyone making videos about the server had to think about which name to use and whether a video could be struck, and since a lot of the creators use those videos for their living (making money from them), they almost always took the videos down. That is an absurd thing to ask of someone who just wants to record a slayer task.
CraftScape exists largely for them. It is a name we can hand to a creator, a sponsor or an ad platform without anyone having to take a risk on our behalf.
Where it stands
We are not going to litigate this on a website. In the meantime the practical answer is the boring one - We keep building a fan made game. The game has run without a break since 2012, nothing has been wiped since the engine rewrite in 2019, and the work has not slowed down.
Call it whatever you like. The name matters less than the fourteen years of work behind it.
Clarifications
It's important to us that no assumptions are made about our position, so here is a list of what we do and do not claim
We came up with the name Minescape and have used it publicly since 2012. The other server did not launch until 2019.
That nobody may run a RuneScape-style Minecraft server, or that the genre belongs to us. It plainly does not.
Under United States trademark law, rights follow first use in commerce. We have used the name since 2012 and our position is that priority of use there is ours.
A registration. We do not hold one in the United States yet and are still pursuing it. This is a claim to unregistered rights and it has not been tested.
An old version of our Minecraft map was stolen and used as the basis for that server world without our permission.
A finding of fact. No court has ruled on it, and we publish it as our account of what happened rather than as a judgment.
We bought the models from Sixbits and Cookiesnom, two separate creators, under a commercial licence. The same work is free under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, whose NC term does not permit commercial use, it is in use on a server that takes money, and Sixbits has told us they neither sold nor authorised that use.
That we can enforce any of it. Only Sixbits and Cookiesnom can. Our interest is that we paid for the commercial right and a competitor did not - they stole those assets and are using commercially without a license.
CraftScape is a second name for the same project, chosen so we can market safely.
A new game, a sequel, a reboot, a fresh world or a different team.
FAQ
Is CraftScape a different server from Minescape?
No. Same server, same world, same accounts. Only the marketing name is different, and even that is optional for you personally.
Which name should I use?
Whichever you like. If you make content, CraftScape is the one we can put our weight behind, because it carries no risk to you. We cannot speak for anyone else about the other name, so make your own call. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Do I have to see the new name?
No. Type /rebrand in game to toggle which name your client shows you. If you have been playing recently you see Minescape by default. Brand new players, and anyone returning after more than 60 days away, see CraftScape.
Where can I read your side in game?
Type /craftscape. The full statement has been printed in chat since the rebrand shipped, and this page is the same account written out properly.
Is that server the same game as this one?
No. It is a different server, launched in 2019 and built on an old version of our Minecraft map, stolen from us without permission. The United States, EU, UK, Australian and New Zealand registrations of the name are held by them. Our French (EU) registration for the same word is separate and unaffected by those. If you are looking for us, our address is on the Play page. We permit all content creators to make videos on the server by using our trademark.
Did you lose the name?
To us and to the team the project is still Minescape. What we lost is the ability to market under it safely while the matter is unresolved.
Will the game be renamed for good?
There are no plans to rename the game itself. CraftScape is an additional name, not a replacement.