Blizzard sues Valve over DOTA trademark

[dknm]

Activision is bickering with Valve yet again, this time over the DOTA trademark.

As Blizzard sees it, DOTA has become synonymous with their Warcraft franchise. Developed as a free mod, a DOTA spinoff is now under development at Valve software - the latter treating it as a new IP. As a retail product, which by contrast costs money, Valve needs to acquire trademark rights before going public.

By this opposition, Blizzard seeks to prevent registration by its competitor Valve Corporation ("Valve") of a trademark, DOTA, that for more than seven years has been used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community, under license from Blizzard. By virtue of that use, the DOTA mark has become firmly associated in the mind of consumers with Blizzard, including to signify a highly popular scenario or variant of one of Blizzard's best-selling computer games, Warcraft III. Over the past seven years, the mark DOTA has been used exclusively in connection with Blizzard and its products, namely Warcraft III. Most notably, DOTA has been used as the popular name of a Warcraft III software "mod" file that has been distributed, marketed, and promoted by Blizzard and its fans (under license from Blizzard); that utilizes and is built upon the Warcraft III game engine, interface, and gameplay mechanics; that is comprised of Warcraft III characters, items, spells, artwork, textures, and color palates; that can be played only using Warcraft III software and via Blizzard's online service Battle.net ; and whose name (DOTA, an acronym for "Defense of the Ancients") is a reference to Warcraft III characters known as the "Ancients."

Read the legal stuff here

Credit : Neogaf

[Xilo]

Will be thrown out...

[Lexcyn]

Wasn't DOTA a third party mod? How can Blizzard enforce something like this? Seems absurd.

[Chasethebase Reporter]

Wasn't DOTA a third party mod? How can Blizzard enforce something like this? Seems absurd.

Yeah, probably will get thrown out, but surely Valve would have made the contact before this anyway, and you would think they would have mentioned this earlier in the development cycle.

[Amarok]

Probably will get thrown out, but no reason not to try. Business is competitive and fierce and anything they can do to set back the competition I suppose. =)

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

My WoW character is the property of Blizzard with all its items.

I assume that it is mentioned somewhere in the WC3 TOS that anything you create with the mapeditor, Blizzard's tool, can be claimed as Blizzard's as far as the ownership rights go - 'cause they own all the pixels, the pictures, and the graphics in that map.

Additionally, DOTA is featured at Blizzard's own tournaments. Since it's Blizzard who pays for and organizes these events, everything belongs to them - all the logos and the artwork.

The whole issue is an outright attempt by Valve to profit from DOTA's popularity. Sorry, I like Valve and all, but it's not fair and possibly illegal. Let the courts decide.

[greenwizard88]

I thought DOTA was just a map style for WC3...

[(Spork)]

ROFLMAO

[Xilo]

Wasn't DOTA a third party mod? How can Blizzard enforce something like this? Seems absurd.

A 3rd party mod with it's owner now working for Valve...

[HawkMan]

Yeah, probably will get thrown out, but surely Valve would have made the contact before this anyway, and you would think they would have mentioned this earlier in the development cycle.

You're expecting a bit much from a judge considering previous experience. These are the guys that banned a game, because you count modify it with a third party mod to unlock hot coffee.

[c3ntury]

Wasn't DOTA a third party mod? How can Blizzard enforce something like this? Seems absurd.

Very good point, and it's pretty much the reason why Blizzard definitely doesn't have a case here.

[Chasethebase Reporter]

You're expecting a bit much from a judge considering previous experience. These are the guys that banned a game, because you count modify it with a third party mod to unlock hot coffee.

Not entirely sure what you're trying to say, but what I mean is that Valve would have contacted Blizzard regarding producing Dota anyway...

[Argi]

There's a lot of key things we don't know. Valve obviously applied for the trademark for DOTA2 but how much control over the IP did icefrog have before he got hired by Valve and such? What are the TOS of maps made with the WC3 map editor? etc

[Athernar]

My WoW character is the property of Blizzard with all its items.

I assume that it is mentioned somewhere in the WC3 TOS that anything you create with the mapeditor, Blizzard's tool, can be claimed as Blizzard's as far as the ownership rights go - 'cause they own all the pixels, the pictures, and the graphics in that map.

Additionally, DOTA is featured at Blizzard's own tournaments. Since it's Blizzard who pays for and organizes these events, everything belongs to them - all the logos and the artwork.

The whole issue is an outright attempt by Valve to profit from DOTA's popularity. Sorry, I like Valve and all, but it's not fair and possibly illegal. Let the courts decide.

What a load of absolute rubbish. You may have a point if Dota 2 used assets from Dota 1, but the fact of the matter is, it doesn't.

Unless you want to bicker over the basic 3-lane + dividing river layout of the map in Dota, but then you'd probably also have to go after LoL and HoN.

Blizzard didn't create Dota and make it what it is today. They had their chance to sweep up the mod for their own, but they didn't. Tough luck.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

so far as i am concerned neither of them should get it as Dota has become a genre of game rather than just a title. not to mention the folks that make League of Legends technically would own the rights to it as they are the folks that made the original dota (as well as some of the folks at Valve that are making dota 2)

[Amarok]

Very good point, and it's pretty much the reason why Blizzard definitely doesn't have a case here.

Read the quoted text in the OP, they may have a case. It's not too likely that it will go anywhere, but it will definitely delay Valve somewhat. I'm kind of interested to see how this works out, but I imagine for Dota fans it may be a little annoying. Thankfully I'm not one, I've dabbled in LoL and HoN a tiny bit, but hardly a fan.

What a load of absolute rubbish. You may have a point if Dota 2 used assets from Dota 1, but the fact of the matter is, it doesn't.

Blizzard's reasoning is that the name Dota is associated with their products and their services, not the game or the genre, but just the name. They also state that since Dota stands for defense of the Ancients and "The Ancients" in question are Blizzard created characters that they feel they have a case.

Worst case scenario is that Valve would have to change the name, and that's not a bad thing because Dota 2 is a silly name anyway, they could do much better I think.

[Nagisan]

so far as i am concerned neither of them should get it as Dota has become a genre of game rather than just a title. not to mention the folks that make League of Legends technically would own the rights to it as they are the folks that made the original dota (as well as some of the folks at Valve that are making dota 2)

Actually, other than the WC3 mod, the first DotA was Demigod, not League of Legends (might be some other game, but I'm pretty sure Demigod was the first true DotA style game).

But I agree, DotA is more of a genre not a specific game IMO.

[Bertch]

and whose name (DOTA, an acronym for "Defense of the Ancients") is a reference to Warcraft III characters known as the "Ancients."

Not true the characters are heroes, the ancients are the things the heroes are trying to protect in each base, the Tree or Life and w/e the other one was called.

[Amarok]

Not true the characters are heroes, the ancients are the things the heroes are trying to protect in each base, the Tree or Life and w/e the other one was called.

How does that make it not true? The ancients that the heroes are trying to protect are characters from Blizzard's WarCraft universe.

[Athernar]

so far as i am concerned neither of them should get it as Dota has become a genre of game rather than just a title. not to mention the folks that make League of Legends technically would own the rights to it as they are the folks that made the original dota (as well as some of the folks at Valve that are making dota 2)

Well, no not quite. From what I understand, the original author of DotA was a guy called Eul that created the original map, he lost interest and the guys behind LoL came in. Allegedly, the guy(s) in question was pretty terrible at balancing the game, and eventually was replaced in some manner by the current author, IceFrog.

Blizzard's reasoning is that the name Dota is associated with their products and their services, not the game or the genre, but just the name. They also state that since Dota stands for defense of the Ancients and "The Ancients" in question are Blizzard created characters that they feel they have a case.

Worst case scenario is that Valve would have to change the name, and that's not a bad thing because Dota 2 is a silly name anyway, they could do much better I think.

Dota doesn't stand for "Defense of the Ancients", Dota as in "Dota 2" is a word and not an acronym. That's why it's "Dota" rather than "DotA" in Valve's usage.

How does that make it not true? The ancients that the heroes are trying to protect are characters from Blizzard's WarCraft universe.

<derpsnip>

Sorry, misread this. But regardless, the ancients are objects, not characters.

[Shadrack]

Both Blizzard and Valve have good arguments to claim the trademark.

The fact that Blizzard has used the DOTA name commercially before (in tournaments for example) may give them an edge.

I think that Valve is the rightful owner of the DOTA name. The person who came up with DOTA works for them now... he may not own the original WC3 mod because blizzard came up with the graphics and sounds (etc). But he came up with the name, not Blizzard.

It could go either way. Litigation is unpredictable and it ultimatly falls on some guy in a robe who may not have a clue.

[Lucas]

To be honest I think Blizzard 'might' have a case here. The DotA history is pretty long and old so they might have something depending on their TOS, etc.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I thought this was why Valve went for the name "Dota 2" instead of the acronym "DotA 2". It's obvious that it's Defense of the Ancients but they never refer to it like that. It's always "Dota" [doh-tuh].

[CentralDogma]

Both Blizzard and Valve have good arguments to claim the trademark.

The fact that Blizzard has used the DOTA name commercially before (in tournaments for example) may give them an edge.

I think that Valve is the rightful owner of the DOTA name. The person who came up with DOTA works for them now... he may not own the original WC3 mod because blizzard came up with the graphics and sounds (etc). But he came up with the name, not Blizzard.

It could go either way. Litigation is unpredictable and it ultimatly falls on some guy in a robe who may not have a clue.

My understanding is that Blizzard never supported DOTA in any official capacity, tornaments or otherwise.