Blizzard: Valve Shouldn't Trademark DotA

[Tom Goldman]

Blizzard: Valve Shouldn't Trademark DotA

Blizzard thinks that DotA is owned by the community, not Valve.

Earlier this month, Valve been challenged [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104353-Valve-Confirms-DotA-2-for-2011] by some of DotA's original creators that believe nobody should have the rights to own the property. Today, Valve has another much bigger challenger in the form of Blizzard Entertainment, which doesn't think trademarking DotA is the "right thing to do."

Blizzard vice president Rob Pardo recently spoke to Eurogamer about the issue and said: "To us, that means that you're really taking it away from the Blizzard and StarCraft II [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009ECGK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?ie=UTF8&cloe_id=c328ab78-039c-4c6a-831c-f46acf2a733f&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00005V9Q1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1V5E8C45R6HWQQ33D7AC].

Pardo also says he is "confused" that a completely separate company would try to trademark DotA. "Certainly, DotA came out of the Blizzard community," he added. "It just seems a really strange move to us that Valve would go off and try to exclusively trademark the term considering it's something that's been freely available to us and everyone in the Warcraft III community up to this point."

If Valve were to challenge Blizzard on the use of DotA for its upcoming StarCraft II gametype, Pardo says: "Our response is that they don't own the term DotA at this point, it's something that they're filing for. Our contention is that it should continue to be available to Blizzard and to our community."

Considering how large these two companies are I would expect that Valve has already heard about Blizzard's thoughts on the matter. Unless Valve really wants to trademark DotA and keeping silent is a necessary part of that, a response is likely coming soon. To me it seems like a touchy issue, because Valve should be able to produce a professionally created version of DotA, and studios usually have to protect their investments by trademarking game names. What do you think: Should any single company be able to own the DotA name?

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-23-valve-shouldnt-trademark-dota-blizzard]

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[samsonguy920]

I agree with Blizz on this, and frankly this is a bad sign for Valve to be doing this.
This is a mark against your coolness factor, Valve. Don't make me lose faith in you.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

They shouldn't own the name, if they want to make their own version of DotA that's fine, but it's fine because it is a public name and idea.

Trademarking it just gives them the option to sue anyone who wants to make DotA variations that might 'infringe on their trademark'.

 

[fKd]

acti blizzard dont think its the right thing to do? hahahahahahhahahahaha christ..

 

[Dioxide20]

Blizzard "Dammit, we didn't get the copyright first, hey Valve, not cool".

 

[SimuLord]

I agree with Blizzard and furthermore, I'm not sure Valve's trademark will be able to hold up---if it came to court, wouldn't DotA's creators be able to get Valve for copyright infringement under the current terms of the DMCA and the Berne Convention?

(that was the impression that I got from Brad Templeton's essay about copyright, at least.)

 

[w-Jinksy]

meh, its kinda Hypocritical of them the way they and activision behave towards copyrights but i can see where they'...... wait a sec isnt the new dota being developed supposed to be free like alien swarm.

the fuck do blizzard care about a free game?

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Blizzard doesn't like losing customers to another company??? GASP!

 

[darkfire613]

I'd thought all along it was kind of weird for Valve to be making a DotA game because it was born from the Warcraft III community. Glad to see its creators and Blizzard think the same thing.

 

[Anah'ya]

Somehow I can't see myself believing Blizzards mentioning this out of love for the community. Feels like an attempt at a "be the good guy" stunt to me.

... though I was a little curious about Valve and the whole trademarking DotA, all things considered (community focused project, etc...)

 

[GiantRedButton]

well it sounds less that they think it should remain free and more like Blizzard want it.
They keep talking about it being available to the "blizzard community" etc.
Valve have Icefrog and it was his idea to get the trademark and make dota 2.
And icefrog is the authority when it comes to Dota, since he did most of the work. Blizz has no say in this since none of their employees were even part of the development process.

Somehow I can't see myself believing Blizzards mentioning this out of love for the community. Feels like an attempt at a "be the good guy" stunt to me.

... though I was a little curious about Valve and the whole trademarking DotA, all things considered (community focused project, etc...)

They seem to be doing the same thing they did with counter strike and Tf and portal.
They hire the modteam and trademark it.
Counter strike was a mod once too. And now valve owns the devs and trademark.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Whoop de do? It's just the name, change it to something else, it doesn't affect the game itself.

 

[ImprovizoR]

If Valve doesn't Blizzard will. I would let Valve handle DoTA before Blizzard any day. Valve will make free stuff for it, Blizzard would make you pay for everything. Valve just has a better community. Maybe it's not the right thing to do if you concentrate on the moment. But it's the best thing and future will show that Valve is right to do this.

 

[The Bandit]

I think Valve should just forget this nonsense and make Episode III.

No, I will not allow a single Valve thread to go by without some mention of Episode III. Sorry. : /

 

[LTK_70]

well it sounds less that they think it should remain free and more like Blizzard want it.
They keep talking about it being available to the "blizzard community" etc.
Valve have Icefrog and it was his idea to get the trademark and make dota 2.
And icefrog is the authority when it comes to Dota, since he did most of the work. Blizz has no say in this since none of their employees were even part of the development process.

Somehow I can't see myself believing Blizzards mentioning this out of love for the community. Feels like an attempt at a "be the good guy" stunt to me.

... though I was a little curious about Valve and the whole trademarking DotA, all things considered (community focused project, etc...)

They seem to be doing the same thing they did with counter strike and Tf and portal.
They hire the modteam and trademark it.
Counter strike was a mod once too. And now valve owns the devs and trademark.

You're right. I don't believe Blizzard is acting completely selfless here. Sure, DotA originated in Warcraft, but if anyone should lay claim to the name it's the developers, who now work for Valve. And isn't it standard procedure to trademark a game that will be developed and sold in the future? It seems Blizzard isn't prepared to give up what it believes to be its own territory so easily...

 

[CheckD3]

I feel like Blizzard is saying this because they're afraid that Valve will take DotA and do something amazing that they couldn't do w/ it. This is Valve, btw. Sure they run on their own time schedual and have been making gamers wait for Episode 3 forever. But this is a company that released a sequel to a game a year later, and is updating both. A company that gives it's fav. crowd (PC) of gamers free DLC and amazing deals when the DLC comes out.

I feel like no matter what Valve does, they do everything to make up for it. If DotA is what it sounds like, Blizz might be scared that Valve makes a competetor to WoW and takes away from their millions of dollars of money

 

[Nuclear_Suspect]

So wait... its been known that Valve was working with 'Icefrog' (The current creator of DotA: Allstars) for what? 1-2 years now? And NOW Blizzard wants to contest it?

Blizzard have shown no real interrest in DotA and with the MANY restrictions on custom maps in StarCraft 2, the whole "But we love our community" excuse seems a bit false.

Heck, call the game "Defenders of the Valve 2" just to spite them , the additions to the game looks plain awesome.