MoP Filing From A Trademark Attorney's Point of View

[Kisho]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but take a look at the items in the Blizzcon pre-sale. There's a shirt and poster with keynote art that is currently unknown, pending announcement at Blizzcon. So there's some huge announcement that'll happen at Blizzcon this year. Fair enough.

If you carry on browsing the items in the pre-sale however, you find more than one item relating to Pandaren. Wonder why they're there...

[Weerra]

The real deal-sealing fact is the extremely dodgy response.
When interviewed about the trademark (if it wasn't the expansion), they could just say "No, it's not an expansion."
but nooo, the official went dodgy and weaseling his way out of answering.

[Muis]

This is why your friend is an ex-attorney.

Just deal with MoP being the title and get a real attorney friend now ^_^.

[wariofan1]

As much as I would like it not to be true, we gotta face this tragic end. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking, they know very well that half of their player base hates these stupid Kung Fu Pandas. There is no thing as a 'WoW killer', Blizzard will just kill WoW themselves, as we will see with this expansion. Better hurry up and get my Ragnaros kill, 'cause next expansion we will probably face Mr. Fluffyfluf, the evil rabbit of Happysdale. And yes, haters gonna hate, and yes I am mad, 'bro'.

[huth]

nor have the 100% denied it. so its not true

Except that's exactly what he said. The statement is that there is no proof, neither for nor against it being the expansion, which is true.

The only thing we currently know is that Blizz trademarked MoP and that it has something to do with computergames, everything else is purely speculation.

[Cronos]

This is why your friend is an ex-attorney.

Just deal with MoP being the title and get a real attorney friend now ^_^.

Oh cmon dont bash his friend, thing is nothing his friend said is technically untrue, since he didnt confirmed or deny it, which is totally lawyer thinking.

---------- Post added 2011-09-27 at 06:20 AM ----------

As much as I would like it not to be true, we gotta face this tragic end. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking, they know very well that half of their player base hates these stupid Kung Fu Pandas. There is no thing as a 'WoW killer', Blizzard will just kill WoW themselves, as we will see with this expansion. Better hurry up and get my Ragnaros kill, 'cause next expansion we will probably face Mr. Fluffyfluf, the evil rabbit of Happysdale. And yes, haters gonna hate, and yes I am mad, 'bro'.

Except that you are ignoring the fact that WoW playerbase, being as large as it is, is usually deeply divided in opinions, so whatever blizz does, they are gonna upset somebody. If people leaves, they just need to reel in new players. So every single person threatening to quit, can leave without doing real permanent "damage".

[LordRayken]

The thing your Ex-Attorney leaves out is the thing about BlizzCon, and any surrounding information, like... Say... www.mistsofpandaria.com

IF they are going to be announcing a new expansion or anything new at BlizzCon, it would have to be trademarked months in advance for the printers, the items being made, the merchandise, etc.

Anything that appears at BlizzCon with the name on it, has to be Trademarked. They can't just file it a day before BlizzCon because everything will have already BEEN MADE, and without a Trademark, anyone making any of this can rip it off or copy it or just use it themselves.

That's the number one thing that matters most - The name has to be trademarked as soon as any ideas of its conception leave the company halls. In this case, it was in August when they probably notified the printers for banners of Mists of Pandaria or what have you, and they probably finally decided on an expansion title. This is just so no one can walk in the doors a day early and see the set ups and go "I'm registering Mists of Pandaria".

Also, any website engineers, or anything being made with the name "Mists of Pandaria" has to be Trademarked, it has to have that TM or it's not owned by Blizzard and can't be used the way they want to use it. This is why there is no "stealth" Trademark that is going to occur the day before BlizzCon or anything stupid like that.

So, it's a safe bet that anything being made EXTERNALLY, outside of the companies computers that the programmers themselves use, began being produced the day and following the days after the trademark was filed.

EDIT:
www.mistsofpandaria.com is also registered through godaddy, though it's blank for now and on backorder. GoDaddy is where WorldofWarcraft.com has been registered since 1999.

It was registered July 25th 2011... The Trademark for Mists of Pandaria was filed July 28, 2011. So either someone is psychic, or Blizzard registered the website domain before the trademark went public so no one could register it.

Coincidence? Oh. The domain is also held by someone in California named "Harry Henderson"... A pseudo name if I ever saw one. That's a bigfoot character from a movie Harry and the Hendersons.

EDIT:
It's also safe to say with no additional trademarks being filed, Mists of Pandaria is the only announcement we will have this year. Sorry Titan wishers, looks like you'll be waiting until 2012.

Please. Let's drop the bullshit and face the facts.

[Gradywhite]

The thing your Ex-Attorney leaves out is the thing about BlizzCon, and any surrounding information, like... Say... www.mistsofpandaria.com

IF they are going to be announcing a new expansion or anything new at BlizzCon, it would have to be trademarked months in advance for the printers, the items being made, the merchandise, etc.

Anything that appears at BlizzCon with the name on it, has to be Trademarked. They can't just file it a day before BlizzCon because everything will have already BEEN MADE, and without a Trademark, anyone making any of this can rip it off or copy it or just use it themselves.

That's the number one thing that matters most - The name has to be trademarked as soon as any ideas of its conception leave the company halls. In this case, it was in August when they probably notified the printers for banners of Mists of Pandaria or what have you, and they probably finally decided on an expansion title. This is just so no one can walk in the doors a day early and see the set ups and go "I'm registering Mists of Pandaria".

Also, any website engineers, or anything being made with the name "Mists of Pandaria" has to be Trademarked, it has to have that TM or it's not owned by Blizzard and can't be used the way they want to use it. This is why there is no "stealth" Trademark that is going to occur the day before BlizzCon or anything stupid like that.

So, it's a safe bet that anything being made EXTERNALLY, outside of the companies computers that the programmers themselves use, began being produced the day and following the days after the trademark was filed.

EDIT:
www.mistsofpandaria.com is also registered through godaddy, though it's blank for now and on backorder. GoDaddy is where WorldofWarcraft.com has been registered since 1999.

It was registered July 25th 2011... The Trademark for Mists of Pandaria was filed July 28, 2011. So either someone is psychic, or Blizzard registered the website domain before the trademark went public so no one could register it.

Coincidence? Oh. The domain is also held by someone in California named "Harry Henderson"... A pseudo name if I ever saw one. That's a bigfoot character from a movie Harry and the Hendersons.

EDIT:
It's also safe to say with no additional trademarks being filed, Mists of Pandaria is the only announcement we will have this year. Sorry Titan wishers, looks like you'll be waiting until 2012.

Please. Let's drop the bullshit and face the facts.

Except that nothing you said is actually fact. Blizzard trademarked WotLK 6 days before BlizzCon 2007 and they had all kinds of Wrath-related things there. Also, you have to have proof of intention and materials to use the trademark, which has already been mentioned a few times in this thread. It's not like some random Joe could trademark it if he saw a leaked poster or something; it would be easily challenged and won by Blizzard who actually has products with the name on it. Please do some ACTUAL research before spewing your opinions as fact.

[Anjerith]

Hmm then your lawyer friend gave you some bad advice or you just claim to have talked to a lawyer. A company as large and not stupid as Blizzard would never get this close to blizzcon without trademarking the name for an expansion they plan on releasing. While all you people just want to deny because you are hoping its not the truth its time to wake up and smell the coffee. Think about how much work goes into something like a new expansion and since they plan on introducing at blizzcon all the stuff that would need to go to printers and outside companies for the event. Does anyone actually think they are going to wait for the last minute when so many people have access to this kind of knowledge so they can announce something then have the name yanked out from under them cause someone else already trademarked the name. Please people quit whining and look to the future in a good way not always with the negative dont knock something until you have tried it. MOP will be the expansion they have no other trademarks out there and blizzcon is like 3 weeks away.

It's fairly easy to file a copyright/patent/trademark under another company such as Activision-Blizzard. Furthermore, while it is unlikely that they havent trademarked the name yet, that really doesn't mean anything - it isn't hard to come up with a one to three word subtitle.

[Dariela]

10 gold says we find art assets "leaked" in the PTR client this week.

Maybe that will put some of this to rest.

[Feyrzhuk]

MoP will never be a WoW expansion. Feel free to flame and ridicule me should I be proven wrong.

[Krullthor]

its time to wake up and smell the coffee.

smells like maple nut crunch

[Dariela]

Damnit all this talk about coffee... need coffee...

[Deleted]

The thing your Ex-Attorney leaves out is the thing about BlizzCon, and any surrounding information, like... Say... www.mistsofpandaria.com

IF they are going to be announcing a new expansion or anything new at BlizzCon, it would have to be trademarked months in advance for the printers, the items being made, the merchandise, etc.

Anything that appears at BlizzCon with the name on it, has to be Trademarked. They can't just file it a day before BlizzCon because everything will have already BEEN MADE, and without a Trademark, anyone making any of this can rip it off or copy it or just use it themselves.

That's the number one thing that matters most - The name has to be trademarked as soon as any ideas of its conception leave the company halls. In this case, it was in August when they probably notified the printers for banners of Mists of Pandaria or what have you, and they probably finally decided on an expansion title. This is just so no one can walk in the doors a day early and see the set ups and go "I'm registering Mists of Pandaria".

Also, any website engineers, or anything being made with the name "Mists of Pandaria" has to be Trademarked, it has to have that TM or it's not owned by Blizzard and can't be used the way they want to use it. This is why there is no "stealth" Trademark that is going to occur the day before BlizzCon or anything stupid like that.

So, it's a safe bet that anything being made EXTERNALLY, outside of the companies computers that the programmers themselves use, began being produced the day and following the days after the trademark was filed.

EDIT:
www.mistsofpandaria.com is also registered through godaddy, though it's blank for now and on backorder. GoDaddy is where WorldofWarcraft.com has been registered since 1999.

It was registered July 25th 2011... The Trademark for Mists of Pandaria was filed July 28, 2011. So either someone is psychic, or Blizzard registered the website domain before the trademark went public so no one could register it.

Coincidence? Oh. The domain is also held by someone in California named "Harry Henderson"... A pseudo name if I ever saw one. That's a bigfoot character from a movie Harry and the Hendersons.

EDIT:
It's also safe to say with no additional trademarks being filed, Mists of Pandaria is the only announcement we will have this year. Sorry Titan wishers, looks like you'll be waiting until 2012.

Please. Let's drop the bullshit and face the facts.

That website has been marked as a scam site on firefox...

[Frankennoob]

That website has been marked as a scam site on firefox...

There may have been something scammy there (possibly by spoffing the URL), but now it's a GoDaddy placeholder page.

[Orange Joe]

Derp. Blizzard is obviously not going to use a name for an expansion if someone else trademarks it. If something like what you said happened, blizzard would change the name of the expansion.

Catacylsm was originally called Worldbreaker, you know. Also, the WotLK trademark was a few days before blizzcon 07, there is still a slight chance MoP is NOT the next expansion.

Personally, while I hope it isnt, im pretty sure that it is at this point.

pretty sure world breaker was used for the TCG not WoW

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Except that nothing you said is actually fact. Blizzard trademarked WotLK 6 days before BlizzCon 2007 and they had all kinds of Wrath-related things there. Also, you have to have proof of intention and materials to use the trademark, which has already been mentioned a few times in this thread. It's not like some random Joe could trademark it if he saw a leaked poster or something; it would be easily challenged and won by Blizzard who actually has products with the name on it. Please do some ACTUAL research before spewing your opinions as fact.

Wrath was never leaked like Cata was. And I think the small leaking that happened from Wrath showed Blizzard their "trademark just before blizzcon" strategy was too big of a risk. And they were confirmed when Cata was leaked in it's entirety.

[Thage]

MoP is the next expansion name.

Ill track down every forum user on MMO-C that said that it wont be.Then Im gonna make humiliation thread.

I'd file that under "Bad ideas that are fun to talk about, but probably shouldn't be followed through on," myself.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

As much as I would like it not to be true, we gotta face this tragic end. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking, they know very well that half of their player base hates these stupid Kung Fu Pandas. There is no thing as a 'WoW killer', Blizzard will just kill WoW themselves, as we will see with this expansion. Better hurry up and get my Ragnaros kill, 'cause next expansion we will probably face Mr. Fluffyfluf, the evil rabbit of Happysdale. And yes, haters gonna hate, and yes I am mad, 'bro'.

Except you're assuming Pandaren = Kung Fu Panda
Pandaren was around long before KFP, and while the Pandaren are Eastern themed, I dare you to find a western themed Panda.

[Frankennoob]

Derp. Blizzard is obviously not going to use a name for an expansion if someone else trademarks it. If something like what you said happened, blizzard would change the name of the expansion.

Catacylsm was originally called Worldbreaker, you know. Also, the WotLK trademark was a few days before blizzcon 07, there is still a slight chance MoP is NOT the next expansion.

Personally, while I hope it isnt, im pretty sure that it is at this point.

The very short lead on the Wrath trademark is the best hope for the panda haters. This is the reason I could never work for Blizzard. I'd be so tempted to waste money a week before BlizzCon this year by registering "Yep, it's Pandas" as a trademark just to drive people crazy.

---------- Post added 2011-09-27 at 10:33 AM ----------

Oh, and can we please knock it off with the "Kung Fu Panda" stuff. That's just as annoying and irrelevant than all the "Worgen = Twilight" nonsense.