Blizzard sues Valve over DOTA

Some interesting news:


Further to this morning's news that Blizzard is planning to bring Blizzard DOTA to retail, we've now been informed that the company is suing Valve over the impending "official sequel", DOTA 2.

The original Defense of the Ancients was a mod for Warcraft III, based on a map from StarCraft - and Blizzard is claiming that the name "has been used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community, under license from Blizzard" for more than seven years.

Valve hired the creator of the original map and trademarked the name "Dota" before announcing the company's latest game in development - the Multi Online Battle Arena title DOTA 2.

While neither Blizzard nor Valve have a habit of discussing rumours, innuendo, speculation or lawsuits, we're chasing up more details on the case - if you're interested, have a browse through these relevant documents.


http://www.playerattack.com/news/201...lve-over-dota/

Awesome Blizzard way to be greedy.

http://fringebowlteamblog.com/images...p_clap_gif.gif

Its funny how blizzard waited till the game was 3/4's done before they even cared.

Meanwhile LoL and HoN...

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Originally Posted by Orpheus

Meanwhile LoL and HoN...

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I as a LoL player personally, probably wouldn't quit it for DOTA 2 because its been there for me for the longest time and I have no complaints, no reason to switch games.

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Originally Posted by thedood123

I as a LoL player personally, probably wouldn't quit it for DOTA 2 because its been there for me for the longest time and I have no complaints, no reason to switch games.

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That was my point. LoL and HoN carry on like nothing is going on.

[QUOTE=kuturu4FA;2705499]

Awesome Blizzard way to be greedy.

You'd have to be an idiot to let someone else get away with stealing your IP. Even years and years from now DOTA will still be something profitable. DOTA itself will be a legend, will be a history. No way in hell anyone would give that away.



LoL and HoN are not named DOTA. Simple as that. DOTA belongs to Blizzard and Blizzard only. Period. How dare Valve names something DOTA 2 when DOTA isn't Valve's original IP.

This is what happens when you try to trademark the DOTA name

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Originally Posted by whitey

This is what happens when you try to trademark the DOTA name

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it's edge case all over again lol i won't be surprised Blizzard sued people and companies using there DOTA trademark/names etc

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In 2008, Feak and Mescon each assigned all of their rights in and to the DotA Mods and the DotA-Allstars Website to "DotA-Allstars, LLC." In 2010, DotA-Allstars, LLC was purchased by Riot Games, Inc. In 2011, Riot transferred DotA-Allstars, LLC to Blizzard.

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The legal documents are an interesting read, didn't know anything about that.

Wasn't DotA fanmade? Blizzard shouldn't have a say in this. Just because someone used their content to make their own content, that doesn't automatically give them ownership of the new content. This is stupid. If Blizzard wins, this is ******ed.

Edit: Just read up on the transfers. That still sucks though!

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Originally Posted by Orpheus

The legal documents are an interesting read, didn't know anything about that.

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True that.

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Originally Posted by Genostar10

Wasn't DotA fanmade? Blizzard shouldn't have a say in this. Just because someone used their content to make their own content, that doesn't automatically give them ownership of the new content. This is stupid. If Blizzard wins, this is ******ed.

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Incorrect. Without WC3, there's no DOTA. Blizzard owns everything made from the Engine. The creator of those mods can only claim creator credit, not ownership.

This is going to be some interesting drama story to follow :) Time to get me some popcorn

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Originally Posted by ASNZern

In correct. Without WC3, there's no DOTA. Blizzard owns everything made from the Engine. The creator of those mods can only claim creator credit, not ownership.

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Read up on my edit. lol

Read ;)

I know sometimes it's not ideal, but that's how it works.

Creator of Ragnarok Online went on to make Lime Odyssey, not RO2, right? Because RO belongs to Gravity, not the to the Lead Designer. Same thing will happen to anyone who names a game The Elder's Scroll 6, or Fallout 5.

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Originally Posted by Orpheus

Meanwhile LoL and HoN...

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I was thinking the exact same thing

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Originally Posted by ASNZern

In correct. Without WC3, there's no DOTA. Blizzard owns everything made from the Engine. The creator of those mods can only claim creator credit, not ownership.

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I'm no legal expert, but I highly doubt Blizzard has any valid claims to ownership of the intellectual property rights. Also pretty sure they're unable to claim they own the copyright to anything made in their game engine by modders without the modders consent.

Blizzard isn't actually suing Valve. The linked document is a notice filed with the USPTO in opposition to Valve's attempt to register 'DOTA' as a trademark.
Valve is the party attempting to acquire the 'DOTA' trademark, and Blizzard is pointing out that the acronym is already strongly associated with an existing non-Valve product. I'd say that Blizzard is on the right side of the argument here.


(from reddit)

blizzard can eat my spinning shining black steaming shit

my 2 cents..blizzard will lose..it was just a fan made name when it was created back then. I could make a wc3/sc2 map editor game called aflaskjfssl and you saying they could trademark that name and all the lil map editor names on wc3/sc2?

i believe blizzard when they went live on thier own dota version didnt want anyone else to have the name Dota in it..cause really Dota 2 sounds better than blizzard dota. I think its going to come down to who bought the trademark dota rights first...cause blizzard cant just assume just cause it was on their game they automatically have rights..but if blizzard got the rights way back when but was mostly hush hush about it till now...they have the say so.

But still...they should have been contacted valve and told them they have the rights instead of waiting this long....this made me lose a few points for blizzard

EDIT part- when reading that letter blizzard sent in..valve is being the assholes here...if they register it then blizzard cant have that name or use it in anyway...basically all the games on wc3 will have to use another name etc

^ No ones bought the name rights to dota - that's why they're trying, they're fighting over the Name rights since valve wants to go ahead and make it there own when in all honesty

It's a community name more then anything thus valve shouldnt try to buy it.

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Originally Posted by Zilo

^ No ones bought the name rights to dota - that's why they're trying, they're fighting over the Name rights since valve wants to go ahead and make it there own when in all honesty

It's a community name more then anything thus valve shouldnt try to buy it.

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Blizzard is the good guys here, they're trying to stop DOTA from being trademarked by the greedy bastards at EA. (EA, Valve, same difference now)

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Originally Posted by Bacn

I'm no legal expert, but I highly doubt Blizzard has any valid claims to ownership of the intellectual property rights. Also pretty sure they're unable to claim they own the copyright to anything made in their game engine by modders without the modders consent.

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I can't find TOS of Map Editor at the moment >_>"
But to me, it should be the other way around. Modders can make anything as long as they agree to Blizzard's rules/policies. Like when that guy made World of Starcraft mod, and Blizz told him to change project name. That shows Blizzard controls Map Editors and every mods from it.

So blizzard wants to win against the real creator of dota?

Really sad...

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Originally Posted by WahrHeit

So blizzard wants to win against the real creator of dota?

Really sad...

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Where did you get that from?? Dota was always associated with Blizzard, and always will be.