Blizzard Legally Opposes Valve Trademark Over DOTA Name

[Dupin]

Nothing here said Blizzard is filing a trademark. Nothing. It's not FACT unless it's backed up.

The Trademark being Public domain makes no difference to DotA 2. It will still be called the same.
If Blizzard DOES file the trademark after this, the only difference is that DotA 2 would change it's name.


Incorrect, very early on in SC2s development they said they would be making a DotA game for it in the map editor.
This may have been in October of 09...maybe 08.
DotA 2 was formally announced in 2010.

You can't be that naive.
If you are just going to ignore the info then there's no need to argue IMO.

[seam]

You can't be that naive.
If you are just going to ignore the info then there's no need to argue IMO.

The same could be said about seeing info that isn't there.

[Iosif]

The way I see it, Valve hired the guy who basically made DoTA (technically, Eul did, but IceFrog is the one who took DoTA to what it is). Meanwhile, Blizzard didn't have anything to do with DoTA at all, aside from it being a custom map made in TFT. If anyone's gonna copyright it, may as well be Valve.

Interesting thing about many End User License Agreement (EULA), I haven't had the time to review the Warcraft 3 (WC3) EULA. But in many games that i have created custom MODS for the the mobs are considered part of the extended game and considered property of the game. In reality if Blizzard wrote their EULA well then most anything created for WC3 by players would fall under the WC3 Intellectual Property (IP).

Now that being said, even if the developers of DoTA made a new game they would be prohibited from using any of the WC3 IP (Sounds/Art, Maps, Custom Game mechanics). And if they do make a DoTA you can be sure that Blizzard will be going throe it in great detail to make sure none of that happened.

[Fojos]

The Orange Box is also probably the best deal in the history of gaming, at least for initial price point. Three full games for the price of one, right from the day of release. Now it's like, what, $10?

TF2 and Portal full games? Yeah...

Portal 2 is a full game, not the first one. It's a glorified mini-game.

[Blizark]

You can't be that naive.
If you are just going to ignore the info then there's no need to argue IMO.

The only information he is ignoring is the info you are making up. There is no reason to indicate Blizzard wants to trademark DOTA, in fact, most of the arguments they are making against Valve would also go against Blizzard if they tried to take the trademark. Blizzard also has nothing to gain from the trademark. We already know Blizzard DOTA is going to be a free custom map on Starcraft 2.

[Herecius]

For those taking the argument direction of 'Icefrog works for Valve and therefor it's Valve's right to trademark it,' will you still be singing the same song if Icefrog stopped working for Valve, but Valve still had the trademark?

In other words, the outcome of this case has absolutely nothing to do with Icefrog's employment with Valve, no matter how much you want it to. To argue in that direction is fairly pointless.

[TonyIommi]

The only information he is ignoring is the info you are making up. There is no reason to indicate Blizzard wants to trademark DOTA, in fact, most of the arguments they are making against Valve would also go against Blizzard if they tried to take the trademark. Blizzard also has nothing to gain from the trademark. We already know Blizzard DOTA is going to be a free custom map on Starcraft 2.

Uhhh do we? Given that Blizzard has plans has plans for a Starcraft 2 market place are we sure Blizzard Dota will be free? Furthermore if it is what is to stop them from using a model like HoN or LoL where the free map only allows you to use certain heroes on a weekly basis unless you pay a fee and buy them.

These forums are kinda sad. Most people aren't accusing blizzard of doing anything sneaky, many are just saying blizzard has ulterior motives other than keeping the name for the community. People cannot even accept this about their beloved company. Intellectually honest discourse is not possible on these forums. One wonders if it ever was.

[hailey]

Only because people have romanticized visions of what a profit oriented publically traded company bases their decisions on. They don't do things for "the community" they do things to make money. If there was truly no benefit to the dota name they wouldn't bother with all this.

[DaDimi]

I know this is not related to the Trademark, but seeing as I don't want to make another thread I'll ask here, since it's kinda related...

The post from Iosif has left me wandering... wouldn't Blizzard be able to shut down DOTA 2 whenever they want?
I mean... they reserved the rights to claim anything made their engine theirs, which has been mentioned multiple times in this thread. Same as Mods for WoW, etc.
Now this means they technically would also own the rights to:
- all characters made with that mod (if they weren't stolen from somewhere else)
- all items made with that mod (again, if not stolen)
- not sure : the gameplay of the mod, if it wasn't copied from an existing game/mod
- some other stuff not so important right now

So... wouldn't that mean that Blizzard could shut down DOTA 2 whenever they want? I mean... just look at the Beastmaster and Earthshaker, they're pretty much a 1:1 copy from the ones in DotA.

So while it wasn't Blizzards work that created DotA, they still (lucky for them) own (nearly) all rights to it... soooo... yeah... to repeat myself again... can't Blizzard shut DOTA 2 down whenever they want?
Or at least FORCE Valve to change pretty much everything their game is?.... just kind of wandering... I mean it would really suck for Valve if, in the very unlikely case they win this trademark, they would have to change pretty much everything DOTA 2 is...
And yes, I do believe that Blizz would be a vengeful motherf*cker if need be.

[Wildmoon]

Uhhh do we? Given that Blizzard has plans has plans for a Starcraft 2 market place are we sure Blizzard Dota will be free? Furthermore if it is what is to stop them from using a model like HoN or LoL where the free map only allows you to use certain heroes on a weekly basis unless you pay a fee and buy them.

These forums are kinda sad. Most people aren't accusing blizzard of doing anything sneaky, many are just saying blizzard has ulterior motives other than keeping the name for the community. People cannot even accept this about their beloved company. Intellectually honest discourse is not possible on these forums. One wonders if it ever was.

Only thing we have now is that they publicly stated that they won't trademark Dota. Blizzard Dota will be free with limitation for sure. There's no way you will make a completely free game. If they want to trademark Dota they could do it long before. Doesn't Blizzard always trademark all of their games's name before announcement? just like MoP. There's no reason for them to let Dota alone for so long while they were making it.

[TonyIommi]

I know this is not related to the Trademark, but seeing as I don't want to make another thread I'll ask here, since it's kinda related...

The post from Iosif has left me wandering... wouldn't Blizzard be able to shut down DOTA 2 whenever they want?
I mean... they reserved the rights to claim anything made their engine theirs, which has been mentioned multiple times in this thread. Same as Mods for WoW, etc.
Now this means they technically would also own the rights to:
- all characters made with that mod (if they weren't stolen from somewhere else)
- all items made with that mod (again, if not stolen)
- not sure : the gameplay of the mod, if it wasn't copied from an existing game/mod
- some other stuff not so important right now

So... wouldn't that mean that Blizzard could shut down DOTA 2 whenever they want? I mean... just look at the Beastmaster and Earthshaker, they're pretty much a 1:1 copy from the ones in DotA.

So while it wasn't Blizzards work that created DotA, they still (lucky for them) own (nearly) all rights to it... soooo... yeah... to repeat myself again... can't Blizzard shut DOTA 2 down whenever they want?
Or at least FORCE Valve to change pretty much everything their game is?.... just kind of wandering... I mean it would really suck for Valve if, in the very unlikely case they win this trademark, they would have to change pretty much everything DOTA 2 is...
And yes, I do believe that Blizz would be a vengeful motherf*cker if need be.

'

If this were the case then we could have never had LoL or HoN since the differences between them and dota are extremely minor. Valves game is new code, new models, new animatioins, new music, new sound. It uses the same gameplay style as dota thats about it.

[Oni]

'

If this were the case then we could have never had LoL or HoN since the differences between them and dota are extremely minor. Valves game is new code, new models, new animatioins, new music, new sound. It uses the same gameplay style as dota thats about it.

Plus, all that was made by the people who are now working for Valve and agreed with it.

[DaDimi]

If this were the case then we could have never had LoL or HoN since the differences between them and dota are extremely minor. Valves game is new code, new models, new animatioins, new music, new sound. It uses the same gameplay style as dota thats about it.

I know for one that LoL has pretty much copied no champion (hero) from DotA and even taken the Deny-Mechanic away, so it is quite different from DotA...
But those two games aren't really important, I mean Blizzard has (at least until now) shown no sign of prohibiting any other moba-game out there, not even DOTA 2... it's just a "what if"-situation.
And even if you change the model and animation from the Earth Shaker to not look like a Tauren but to look like a humanoid cow, if it still has the same abilities working the same way and the same name (Earthshaker Raigor Stonehoof), isn't that still pretty much a copy...?

Edit: Just to clarify: The thing with Earthshaker and so on is like another MMORPG making a big badass dragon, calling it Malygos and copying the fight pretty much 1 to 1. Just with another model and slightly different animations.
In my book that looks like foul play...

I mean they want to make sure people see it as the sequel to DotA, use a lot of the old heroes (didn't bother to see how many) and the same mechanics and it's not a copy...? Sounds kinda weird to me...

[TonyIommi]

I know for one that LoL has pretty much copied no champion (hero) from DotA and even taken the Deny-Mechanic away, so it is quite different from DotA...
But those two games aren't really important, I mean Blizzard has (at least until now) shown no sign of prohibiting any other moba-game out there, not even DOTA 2... it's just a "what if"-situation.
And even if you change the model and animation from the Earth Shaker to not look like a Tauren but to look like a humanoid cow, if it still has the same abilities working the same way and the same name (Earthshaker Raigor Stonehoof), isn't that still pretty much a copy...?

Edit: Just to clarify: The thing with Earthshaker and so on is like another MMORPG making a big badass dragon, calling it Malygos and copying the fight pretty much 1 to 1. Just with another model and slightly different animations.
In my book that looks like foul play...

I mean they want to make sure people see it as the sequel to DotA, use a lot of the old heroes (didn't bother to see how many) and the same mechanics and it's not a copy...? Sounds kinda weird to me...

HoN is closer to a direct copy of Dota mechanics. In fact even the ES looks like Behemoth in HoN.


He has literally the same moves that ES does and is more or less a bull man who carries around a giant tree. Earth shaker. Did bilzzard sue s2 games? Notice it slipped under their radar. Valve on the other hand...

valves game whatever it will be called is unique to its own. It's programmed by its own people, uses its own artists ( as far as I'm aware blizzard does not have any claim to "elves" or any other mythological creatures), uses its own engine, its own sound and music. It is a unique venture created by the Euls and Icefrog the two guys behind the original Dota. Now in your book that may be copying but legally you can make a fairly good case that it's not.

[Drakhar]

Only because people have romanticized visions of what a profit oriented publically traded company bases their decisions on. They don't do things for "the community" they do things to make money. If there was truly no benefit to the dota name they wouldn't bother with all this.

That's the thing though, the community's interests align with Blizzard, despite the fact that their intentions aren't as noble as they make them out to be (no shit they're doing it for their own benefit, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise).

[Knightmare]

I don't even see a reason to trademark the name. In both the gaming community and gaming business, things like the name "DotA" should be shared by all developers, especially when it's something that none of them invented in the first place.

[TonyIommi]

That's the thing though, the community's interests align with Blizzard, despite the fact that their intentions aren't as noble as they make them out to be (no shit they're doing it for their own benefit, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise).

How do the communities interest align with blizzard and not valve? I'm curious.

[Dupin]

I don't even see a reason to trademark the name. In both the gaming community and gaming business, things like the name "DotA" should be shared by all developers, especially when it's something that none of them invented in the first place.

You know any other reason besides milking that fat cow we call DotA?
I mean, for real.
Blizzard says "we are not going to trademark it" and *people* believe it.
They also said D3 was going to be released in 2010. Well, you know what I mean.

No need to call fans of something sheep, please post respectfully. -Edge

[Wildmoon]

You know any other reason besides milking that fat cow we call DotA?
I mean, for real.
Blizzard says "we are not going to trademark it" and the sheeps believe it.
They also said D3 was going to be released in 2010. Well, you know what I mean.

I stated the reason above. You should read it before insult other people.

[lordcanyon]

as far as i'm concerned it is not DOTA/Defense of the ancients and should not be called that if it has nothing to do with warcraft.