Heroes of the Storm facing difficulties with EU Trademark Offices

[Spriggs]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/foru...demark-Offices

Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's newly rebranded MOBA, shares a title with a previously published table-top RPG.

Last week, Blizzard changed the name of its upcoming MOBA, formerly titled Blizzard All-Stars, to Heroes of the Storm. The announcement was made in an adorable little teaser, which poked fun at the fact that Blizzard has already had to change the title once before.

However, while most of us were giggling at Blizzard's antics, Mike Pohjola was not. Mike is a game designer from Finland who recently released a table-top RPG called Heroes of the Storm - Sword of the Great King.

"I was surprised to find that Blizzard made a grab for the name, considering we've been using it for a year, and already have an existing published role-playing game," he told me in an email. "From my perspective this is a 'Goliath attacks David' story."

Trademark law can be incredibly complicated, but thankfully, most of us will never have to experience a David Vs. Goliath scenario in which Goliath is actually a team of highly paid lawyers. However, Mike Pohjola is one of the unlucky few.

"[Legal action] is a possibility, since obviously we can't both use the same name," he said. "Of course, the best case would be if Blizzard simply chose yet another working title for their game."

In lieu of Blizzard voluntarily relinquishing control of the Heroes of the Storm trademark, things could start to get a little messy for Pohjola. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Blizzard has already snagged the rights to Heroes of the Storm in the U.S. And the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market indicates that Blizzard owns the title in most of Europe as well. Pohjola, however, controls the Finnish trademark, and has a preexisting claim on the title, but protecting that claim could get very expensive.

The whole dispute is a little ironic, actually. The reason that Blizzard had to change the game's title in the first place was due to a lost battle with Valve over the Blizzard DOTA trademark. You'd think Blizzard would be a little more sensitive to stepping on other peoples' toes, when Valve just got done stepping on theirs.

[Gimlix]

They will probably pay him off to give them the trademark.
And also, if it was trademarked, they couldn't have trademarked it, or am i wrong?

[Deleted]

Fucking please, this RPG developer is trying to gain Sympathy in the same way Notch did when he trademarked Scrolls.

Considering the RPG itself is trademarked Heroes of the Storm - Sword of the Great king. There will be no conflict here unless the Finnish Developer is that desperate.

[Spriggs]

The Finnish guy actually didn't attempt to Trademark his board game until Blizzard already put their trademark up. The guy also labeled it as a "video game" even though it is clearly not, weeks after Blizzard already got the Trademark.

http://tavaramerkki.prh.fi/ice-bin/o...0&p_jaktunnus=

October 4th, 2013.

[ramennoodleking]

Or is it entirely plausible that blizzard had no idea of this game? Also, I don't understand how someone can own something like "Heroes of the Storm." If I wanted to write a book called "Hurricane Katrina: Heroes of the Storm" would that somehow be in violation of blizzards trademark?

[Cooper]

They will probably pay him off to give them the trademark.
And also, if it was trademarked, they couldn't have trademarked it, or am i wrong?

Trademarks can be for different products, at least in the U.S. For example, there could be an educational television show about a guy who provides educational material about bats called "Batman." He could not, however, use the same logo as the DC comic.

Basically, as long as there is a reasonable difference in the products, it's kosher. I don't really foresee this being a big issue for Blizzard at all.

[CosmicGuitars]

No way in hell Blizzard is letting go of the name. He'll either be paid off or crushed under legal fees, if he intends to contest it. Might seem cold, but that's the way it's gunna be. I find it very unlikely Blizzard is going to rename their game a third time so close to BlizzCon because some small crowd-funded roleplaying game has it as a part of their title in Finland.

[Deleted]

And the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market indicates that Blizzard owns the title in most of Europe as well.

so it doesnt mean that those guy should owns the title in U.S before Blizzard registered it.

why registering in U.S= owning title in EU but registering in EU =/= owning in US?

and why if he has only trademark in FIN if Finland is in UE so it should be registered in whole UE?
srsly he was first to register it so he should own it for Fin and UE and Blizzard should buy it from him if Blizz wants to use it in UE.

[CosmicGuitars]

I took a peek in the European Trademark Database, and I found something that left me a bit confused..



If the European trademark database is to be believed, it appears our Finnish friend trademarked Heroes of the Storm in Finland -after- Blizzard did, not before.

[Chickat]

I don't see him having a chance at all tbh. Especially if he really did trademark it after.

[CosmicGuitars]

I've looked around and it seems as though it's true. For one reason or another, he did not register the trademark until after Blizzard did. He conveniently left that out in his interview. I don't really see how he could possibly fight it.

[Arbs]

No way in hell Blizzard is letting go of the name. He'll either be paid off or crushed under legal fees, if he intends to contest it. Might seem cold, but that's the way it's gunna be. I find it very unlikely Blizzard is going to rename their game a third time so close to BlizzCon because some small crowd-funded roleplaying game has it as a part of their title in Finland.

Ya I agree, they aren't changing a 3rd time. He will more than likely get paid off unless he askes for to much than get crushed like you said.

- - - Updated - - -

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/foru...demark-Offices

Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's newly rebranded MOBA, shares a title with a previously published table-top RPG.

Last week, Blizzard changed the name of its upcoming MOBA, formerly titled Blizzard All-Stars, to Heroes of the Storm. The announcement was made in an adorable little teaser, which poked fun at the fact that Blizzard has already had to change the title once before.

However, while most of us were giggling at Blizzard's antics, Mike Pohjola was not. Mike is a game designer from Finland who recently released a table-top RPG called Heroes of the Storm - Sword of the Great King.

"I was surprised to find that Blizzard made a grab for the name, considering we've been using it for a year, and already have an existing published role-playing game," he told me in an email. "From my perspective this is a 'Goliath attacks David' story."

Trademark law can be incredibly complicated, but thankfully, most of us will never have to experience a David Vs. Goliath scenario in which Goliath is actually a team of highly paid lawyers. However, Mike Pohjola is one of the unlucky few.

"[Legal action] is a possibility, since obviously we can't both use the same name," he said. "Of course, the best case would be if Blizzard simply chose yet another working title for their game."

In lieu of Blizzard voluntarily relinquishing control of the Heroes of the Storm trademark, things could start to get a little messy for Pohjola. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Blizzard has already snagged the rights to Heroes of the Storm in the U.S. And the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market indicates that Blizzard owns the title in most of Europe as well. Pohjola, however, controls the Finnish trademark, and has a preexisting claim on the title, but protecting that claim could get very expensive.

The whole dispute is a little ironic, actually. The reason that Blizzard had to change the game's title in the first place was due to a lost battle with Valve over the Blizzard DOTA trademark. You'd think Blizzard would be a little more sensitive to stepping on other peoples' toes, when Valve just got done stepping on theirs.

Blizzard didn't really lose, Valve offered to pay Blizzard to drop the suit & they accepted thats ussually how Mutual Agreements work out with one side paying the other..

The true name of the MOBA genre is DOTA, MOBA is a thing LoL or HoN started. Thats what Blizzard fought for so they could use the name aswell & It went nowhere so they accepted the offer to drop the suit for money & thats all she wrote.

[DEATHETERNAL]

I took a peek in the European Trademark Database, and I found something that left me a bit confused..



If the European trademark database is to be believed, it appears our Finnish friend trademarked Heroes of the Storm in Finland -after- Blizzard did, not before.

If that is true, then the game developer complainig was monumentally stupid for not registering the trademark for the name he has supposedly been using for a year and deserves to have someone else get the name.

[Gozzu]

No way in hell Blizzard is letting go of the name. He'll either be paid off or crushed under legal fees, if he intends to contest it. Might seem cold, but that's the way it's gunna be. I find it very unlikely Blizzard is going to rename their game a third time so close to BlizzCon because some small crowd-funded roleplaying game has it as a part of their title in Finland.

That whole concept of "army of lawyers" and crushing people in legal fees dont really work in europe, and especially not in Scandinavia.
All of it will get paid for, either by the state, or by the loser.
I think the highest sum you can pay, unless you want to hire a specific lawyer, is 15000kr per instance, which is about 2000$, but even that gets payed if you win.

[Eviscero]

I took a peek in the European Trademark Database, and I found something that left me a bit confused..



If the European trademark database is to be believed, it appears our Finnish friend trademarked Heroes of the Storm in Finland -after- Blizzard did, not before.

Scumbag crappy dev. makes some horrible game no one will ever play which he claims to have trademarked in (LOL) Finland only... And it might actually be that he officially trademarked it AFTER Blizz? This guy is a clown. GSO scrub.

[TheWindWalker]

A bit unrelated but the right game for the topic: Does blizzard use the term "MOBA" or did they take the DotA route and go "aRTS?"

[Arbs]

I took a peek in the European Trademark Database, and I found something that left me a bit confused..



If the European trademark database is to be believed, it appears our Finnish friend trademarked Heroes of the Storm in Finland -after- Blizzard did, not before.

If that is true than the Finnish Developer is is gunna have to change his games name. You should always trademark before hand & if he trademarked after Blizzard than that is his tough luck.

- - - Updated - - -

A bit unrelated but the right game for the topic: Does blizzard use the term "MOBA" or did they take the DotA route and go "aRTS?"

No we call it a BOBA: Blizzard Online Battle Arena.

[Charge me Doctor]

Nice try to milk blizzard.

[JimPaladin]

A bit unrelated but the right game for the topic: Does blizzard use the term "MOBA" or did they take the DotA route and go "aRTS?"

I think they're just going with "MOBA".

Personally "action RTS" is just as dumb and unspecific as "MOBA".

The only true term for a game like this is "Hero Arena" but what's the point in labeling it that when the ultimate Hero Arena, Digimon Hero Arena, already exists?

[Deleted]

Just because I'm that type, I thought I'd dig into this "Heroes of the storm" trademark thing, a little.

The original details someone posted above for the Finnish guys application:

Application number: T201350650
Status: Application pending.
Mark: Heroes of the Storm
Application date: 04.10.2013
Applicant: POHJOLA, MIKKO, Helsinki, FI
Representative: Leitzinger Oy

and these are the blizzard ones from the European database:

Trade mark name : HEROES OF THE STORM
Trade mark No : 012170791
Trade mark basis: CTM
Date of receipt : 25/09/2013
Number of results: 1 of 1

Now from a first look it seems blizzard filed first, by 10 days, however after a little more digging it seems despite the late application it did exist as something Mike Pohjola was trying to fund and was talking about back in 2012.

This is an article from 23rd Aug 2012 in Finnish:

http://www.pelaajalehti.com/uutiset/...tavoitteessaan

The Chrome translation (not perfect I know) says this:

Finnish Mike Pohjola's been looking for funding for a number of role-playing adventure heroes of the storm has reached the target. 12 500 dollar amount gunning the project has reached the target, although the financial time is left for a further 18 days. Board game wants to introduce children and young people forgotten the type of game a couple.

and to confirm that here's the indiegogo funding page that the above article is talking about:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/la...aying-for-kids

Myrskyn sankarit ("Heroes of Storm") is an entry-level tabletop roleplaying game for kids. Nothing like this has been available in Finnish for a generation, so it's up to us to remedy the situation.

So I'm not quiet sure where that leaves things, although there is evidence that Mike Pohjola was working towards something called "Heroes of the storm" back when blizzard was still calling the game "Blizzard All Stars" (after the legal spat with Valve over "DOTA") from the records anyone can find on the finnish trademark database:

The Finnish one:

http://tavaramerkki.prh.fi/ice-bin/o...9&p_jaktunnus=

The English version:

http://tavaramerkki.prh.fi/ice-bin/o...0&p_jaktunnus=

both trademarks are filed after the announcement from blizzard, so I'm curious to see how this will end.

Did he just wait too long and it's hard luck for him, will blizzard do the nice thing and let the man have the name he clearly had first (even if he didn't file the paperwork) or given the naming problems they've already had and paperwork which seems to side with them will they carry on as normal?