News Blizzard files objection to Valve's DOTA trademark

I concur. If they can bitch, moan and file lawsuits all day, they should atleast be able to play the game. Maybe actually have a valve vs actiblizzard tourney just as s PR stunt (i want to see blizzards arse handed to them).

 

valve should really not trademark DOTA, its just isnt right. they use the name fine, but put an IP on it. that is just really a not good move. no one should own that name IMO. its like copyrighting the word FPS lol. it would be a bit awkward for ID for example to copyright FPS and put it up in every game )

 

Yes both companies should sack their lawyers & just get on with making awesome games.

And if not, just change the flipping name. Would people honestly care if they tweaked the name if the game was everything & more than they anticipated?.

 

I think it's a bit late for anyone to start trademarking now. The name DotA is now quitely widely associated with the whole genre itself, including LoL, HoN and DOTA 2.

If anything I'd like to see the courts officially deny both of their claims so that any indie developers can call their title a DOTA game without fear of punishment.

 

But....... I have an Italian aunt called Dot and I always greet her with, "heya, if it isn'ta my aunty Dota", she's gonna have to change her name.

 

My guess is Blizzard/Activision know their claim is total ********, but are hoping they can get Valve caught up in a legal battle long enough to drain them of funding (legal fees) and/or stall the game's release.

 

To drain Valve of funding, you would need many, many years of courtroom battles.

 

I'll just leave this here.

Looks like Blizzard are really going to put the Zerg amongst the Terrans with this.

 

Really sleazy move from Valve I think. I mean they get one guy from the original mod team to sell out, after it's built up this huge following, and then want to claim the IP. They know with that IP they can release pretty much whatever they like and coin it in, and so they intend to. It's not fair on the fans, who are getting a dodgy follow up, it's not fair on the modders who made the game in the first place, and it's not fair on Blizzard who built the game that DOTA was spawned from.

Arguably a new low for Valve. They should have better things to do than these cheap shenanigans.

 

Yeah like episode 3 or even a half life 3.

 

More specifically, it was Winston Churchill's way of demonstrating that the "rule" of grammar that states that you should not end a sentence with a preposition is complete nonsense. You would normally say "This is not something I will put up with". All those grammar 'rules' were made up by the Victorians who arbitrarily decided that English should copy Latin grammar. Complete nonsense, of course. Language is in constant flux, there is no rulebook.

 

-being Valve, it will not be a dodgy follow up.
-all other modders have had the chance to be employed by Valve.
-totally fair on Blizzard because they've not done a thing with regard to DOTA trademark.

i hope Valve wins, Blizzard has no right to this trademark, it's like saying Epic has rights to UnWheel (a racing mod for UT2004) when it was entirely a community effort. end of the day, mod's trademark belongs to the modder, not the game publisher.

as for the genre, i think tug-of-war is more applicable than DOTA, Defense of the Ancients is a specific to the theme of this W3 mod.

 

The link I posted to earlier was for a Star Craft 2 powered version of DOTA (or Blizzard DOTA as they've called it).

+1 tbh, it was a Mod for WC3, so the name should belong to the modders who originally created it (not valve and not Blizzard).

 

According to Valve's DOTA2 page:

If this is indeed the case, and they have given consent to their new employers to trademark the name, then what is the problem?

It must surly give Valve a less tentative link to the name than Blizzard!

 

In a response to all three quotes, I'm not sure where the term originates (Riot maybe?) but "MOBA" has been created to replace the word "DOTA" as a genre name. It stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, I believe.

Having been playing the beta quite extensively it's certainly not "dodgy". There are still flaws and not all of the heroes have been added, but the foundation is incredibly smooth and solid. It's certainly typical Valve, high quality with attention to detail.

 

From what I read before, Valve was pursuing the naming rights to DOTA not DotA. They're treating the acronym as an actual word.

The way I see it, Valve lawyers might get away with it if they're saying hey, we're naming our game Dota 2; any similarities, likeness, associations, and down right plagerism to past games and experiences are purely coincidental. I think they can get away with it.

They might run into a few problems when they say, hey oh btw we want full rights to the actual DotA -- that's when things might get hairy. I think they should have been happy with that and went "GG, win by technicality!" But nooooo, they had to dive the tower and try to get full rights to everything. Noob business people...

But who are we to questions corporate business overlords right?