MMO leader Blizzard hasfiled againstValve in an attempt to stop it trademarkingDOTA, claiming the name has been used in exclusive association with the Warcraft series for more than seven years. It was filed late last year but just recently came to light.
DOTA—Defense of the Ancients— started life as a mod ofWarcraft III. The mod’s creator, going by the name of Icefrog, was picked up by Valve to create a full-fledged sequel, and Blizzard isn’t too happy about it.
“Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the markDOTAand in itsWarcraft IIIcomputer game,” claims the suit, “and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans ofWarcraft III.
This isn’t the first timeDOTAhas been seen in a courtroom. Last year, Riot Games’ Steve Mescon tried to counter-file theDefense of the Ancientsname in order to “protect the work that dozens of authors have done to create the game.”
It is quite the knotty situation. On the one hand, Blizzard has played no active role in the success ofDOTA, outside of incidentally providing someone with the tools. On the other,DOTAhas been intrinsically linked toWarcraftfor a long time and Valve’s move to swipe the mod away for its own publishing purposes was audacious at the very least.
Whoever’s in the right, it’s a shame to see them fighting. Give it another few years, and there won’t be one game company that’s not sued another one.
[Via@DevinConnors]
