Blizzard: Valve Shouldn't Trademark DotA

[AngryMongoose]

Just because the DotA community hadn't trademarked DotA doesn't mean Valve are allowed to take it. They can use another name and just make a game in the genre. Hell, to many people the genre is "DotA".

I still don't see how they think they'll get away with taking art assets.

 

[GoGo_Boy]

A lot of the comments here make it seem like Valve just now pulled this 'stunt', however they applied for this trademark months ago, however, just now, with DotA 2 being announced, a week ago, and now Blizzard DotA, Blizzard decide to take action against it.

What action? They were asked about Valves approach and replied in that interview.

So what action did they take?

 

[Ghengis John]

As opposed to... stealing the name from a community project. That's pretty shady.

They didn't steal anything. Some of the creators of DOTA entered into Valve's employment and sold over said rights. The same thing happened with Counterstrike. The only difference is no other company had it's hands in Counterstrike's cookie jar. If blizzard had hired Gooseman instead of valve at the time, valve would probably have cried foul too. So shady? No. Stolen? No.

It remains to be seen though how much claim to ownership the members of the team who were apparently deposed will be able to make.

 

[Vhite]

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.

Yeah, Valve never wants money from anyone, I gues you havent play TF2 yet. If Blizzard ever wanted Dota copyright they would have it long time ago and dont they make anything free for their games? I think you missed GIGABYTES of patches for WoW that keep adding new content.

 

[Crasha]

A lot of the comments here make it seem like Valve just now pulled this 'stunt', however they applied for this trademark months ago, however, just now, with DotA 2 being announced, a week ago, and now Blizzard DotA, Blizzard decide to take action against it.

Blizzard hasn't tried to "take action" against it. A Blizzard rep was asked by a publication what they thought about Valve DotA. They answered honestly, that they thought it was shady.

Christ, is it too much to ask that people actually learn what's going on before spouting off?

Okay, just read the OP again, and I'm sorry for misunderstanding that part. I still think IceFrog and Valve are in their right to do this, as the other developers on DotA weren't excactly handing it over to someone who could do the job better or anything, they just abandoned it, and someone was nice enough to pick it up and keep working.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

They didn't steal anything. Some of the creators of DOTA entered into Valve's employment and sold over said rights. The same thing happened with Counterstrike. The only difference is no other company had it's hands in Counterstrike's cookie jar. If blizzard had hired Gooseman instead of valve at the time, valve would probably have cried foul too. So shady? No. Stolen? No.

DotA Is a community project... those creators never owned the rights. No one owns the rights to DotA, that's the point of this outcry.

Valve want to create a trademark for the name DotA meaning that Valve would own it, the annoying thing about Valve owning the trademark would mean that they have legal precedent over anyone who wants to make a DotA mod for any game.

Modders don't have the rights to their project, I assure you, you look for companies policies on modders and you'll find that the creator doesn't own a damn thing.

 

[JerrytheBullfrog]

Ahahaha... ahahahaaaa... The company that charges people 30 bucks for an in-game mount now thinks it can dole out advice on business ethics. Too rich.

Odds are good this simply upset their own plans in some way.

And wait a second. Are you saying this in defense of the company that charges $20 for a fucking in-game hat? That's ridiculous.

As opposed to... stealing the name from a community project. That's pretty shady.

They didn't steal anything. Some of the creators of DOTA entered into Valve's employment and sold over said rights. The same thing happened with Counterstrike. The only difference is no other company had it's hands in Counterstrike's cookie jar. If blizzard had hired Gooseman instead of valve at the time, valve would probably have cried foul too. So shady? No. Stolen? No.

It remains to be seen though how much claim to ownership the members of the team who were apparently deposed will be able to make however.

One of the creators of DotA was hired by Valve, and he wasn't even the original creator. What right does he have to sell the rights? Do the others not have any claim to the name? What about the hundreds and thousands of people who made the community and the game what it was with suggestions nad feedback and just playing it?

Stolen? Maybe. Shady? Hell yes.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Ahahaha... ahahahaaaa... The company that charges people 30 bucks for an in-game mount now thinks it can dole out advice on business ethics. Too rich.

Odds are good this simply upset their own plans in some way.

Unethical? Compared with putting the Mannco store in a game people have already paid for? The sparkle-pony doesn't give you anything other than cosmetic advantages.

As opposed to... stealing the name from a community project. That's pretty shady.

They didn't steal anything. Some of the creators of DOTA entered into Valve's employment and sold over said rights. The same thing happened with Counterstrike. The only difference is no other company had it's hands in Counterstrike's cookie jar. If blizzard had hired Gooseman instead of valve at the time, valve would probably have cried foul too. So shady? No. Stolen? No.

It remains to be seen though how much claim to ownership the members of the team who were apparently deposed will be able to make however.

The guy they hired (Icefrog) didn't come up with the name or the art assets. He didn't come up with the gameplay either, but Valve are allowed that.

 

[JerrytheBullfrog]

A lot of the comments here make it seem like Valve just now pulled this 'stunt', however they applied for this trademark months ago, however, just now, with DotA 2 being announced, a week ago, and now Blizzard DotA, Blizzard decide to take action against it.

Blizzard hasn't tried to "take action" against it. A Blizzard rep was asked by a publication what they thought about Valve DotA. They answered honestly, that they thought it was shady.

Christ, is it too much to ask that people actually learn what's going on before spouting off?

Okay, just read the OP again, and I'm sorry for misunderstanding that part. I still think IceFrog and Valve are in their right to do this, as the other developers on DotA weren't excactly handing it over to someone who could do the job better or anything, they just abandoned it, and someone was nice enough to pick it up and keep working.

HoN and LoL are just as much continuations of the original DotA as Valve's DotA 2 is. Just one is actually CALLED DotA.

Valve isn't starting development on the WC3 mod. they're making their own game that you're going to have to pay for.

 

[MaVeN1337]

Who gives a shit?
Play the game and shut up.

 

[Ghengis John]

Unethical? Compared with putting the Mannco store in a game people have already paid for? The sparkle-pony doesn't give you anything other than cosmetic advantages.

Hey, who said Valve were the good guys here? I think a lot of you are reading too much into my post. This is just a case of two sharks fighting over the same meat. I don't think there is a "Good guy". Neither one is a dove. Just two crows and some ruffled feathers.

And wait a second. Are you saying this in defense of the company that charges $20 for a fucking in-game hat? That's ridiculous.

Do the others not have any claim to the name? What about the hundreds and thousands of people who made the community and the game what it was with suggestions nad feedback and just playing it?

Stolen? Maybe. Shady? Hell yes.

The people who played it and gave feedback have no more claim to ownership than someone who watches a movie, let alone they paid for nothing. If you're going to get emotional about it I'll just give up on reasoning with you.

 

[bob1052]

Regardless of if there is one developer from the original with valve in making the new one doesn't matter. Firstly, one developer from a team of people is hardly enough to copyright the title.

Secondly, and more importantly, it was made by the WC3 community, for the WC3 community. Even if the whole DotA team was working on DotA team, DotA is no longer their name and they should respect their fans enough to realize that.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

No-one should have DoTA trademarked. Keep it free to everyone so that they can keep it within the community, where it belongs. Isn't there a license for keeping it in public and retail?

Calumon: Aren't they both owned by mean companies? Ohhh... I smell war...

 

[GoGo_Boy]

Also nobody apparently likes Icefrog from what I read; Tskr s look for yourself. http://icefrogtruth.blogspot.com/

Interesting and depressing read :/

 

[Vigormortis]

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

QFT. I mean, come one. Let's face it people. The only reason Blizzard is speaking up about this is because they feel that they should own DotA (and are angry Valve beat them to the punch in trademarking) or because they're afraid they might not get to name their upcoming StarCraft 2 gamemode DotA. It's that simple. They don't really give two shits about the "sanctity" of the property. If Valve hadn't made the move to copyright the name, I can guarantee Blizzard would have.

As much as I love Blizzard, this is just shameless. Besides, I'd wager a hefty amount of cash on Blizzard trying, should they get Valve to forgo trademarking, to trademark the name themselves.

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?

Because they're afraid it'll somehow draw "millions and millions" of players away from their precious babies StarCraft 2 and WarCraft 3.

Since CS and DoD both started out as mods for HL and then Valve hired the guys who made them then trademarked the names I think they are quite within their rights to Trademark DotA as they hired the guy who originally created the mod and he now heads up the Dev team responsible for DotA 2.

Blizzard should have hired him first and then there would be no dispute.

Just my 2 cents

Half-Life: a Valve game.

War3: A Blizzard game. DotA was made by the Blizzard community. This isn't Valve hiring someone out from their community, this is them stealing the name from some other community entirely. It's disgusting.

Based on your other posts, you're either a fervent Blizzard fan or just a trolling ass. You can't call people fanboys when all you do is insult and hate on people that don't love Blizzard.

Furthermore, DotA wasn't made by the "Blizzard Community". It was played by and slightly modded by a part of the community. The game/mod itself was made by a small handful of people, one of whom (that being IceFrog, who was basically handed the franchise by the other two creators after they left to pursue other projects) now works at Valve. Frankly, it's within Valve's right to trademark the name. The only reason people like you are bitching is because you somehow think you'll have to buy the game and won't be able to mod it. Clearly, you've not really read up on the topic. The game is likely going to be free, just as Alien Swarm was. It will allow (and provide support for) any and all modders within the community. Just as they've done with Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. And, just like all of Valve's games, it will receive frequent, free updates and content. Blizzard does the same, mostly, but unlike Valve, they usually charge for any large content update. (I point you to World of Warcraft, specifically) Now that's disgusting.

This all comes down to a community assuming it owns a game. It'd be like if the Team Fortress 2 community decided Valve has no right to own the brand or do anything with it because it's "theirs". The community plays it, so clearly it must belong to the community! Self-entitled whiners ruin everything, I swear. This whole fiasco is as bad as the whole Left 4 Dead 2 boycott. (if not worse, since it's not just a whiny bunch of kids but an high-profile company doing the whining)

 

[Vhite]

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

EXACTLY

...NOT
Have you read any of that?

 

[Jesus Phish]

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.

Blizzard just announced four new game variations for SC2 all being given away for free.

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.

Except it was made from Blizzard IP.

I reckon it should be left to the community. Valve and Icefrog can go ahead and make a clone/version 2 of it, but the DOTA should be the communities. Even if Icefrog was the biggest contributor to it, he wasn't the only one. The rest have their say too.

 

[SovietX]

Valve has made one excellent multiplayer game, TF2. I'm not arguing that.

Blizzard has made at least six excellent multiplayer games. WC2, SC1, D2, WC3, WoW, SC2. The last five are still being updated, and with the exception of WoW, all the updates are for free. Blizzard is now adding four free new games to SC2, one of which is an (apparently awesome) take on DotA.

Sorry, I think I'll take the guys who make fantastic multiplayer in three different genres over the guy who just happen to make good FPS games.

Im pretty sure those arent three different genres. Blizzard stick to the same formula. Im hoping when valve get DoTa they can mix it up a bit and improve on the experience the mod team originally made. Blizzard doesnt really have any force in the matter. Yes their mod tools helped created the original mod, but thats where it stopped.

Anyway, im not a fanboy for any of the companys, im just calling it how I see it.

 

[Xanthious]

I think someone should ask West and Zampella how they feel about somebody taking something that is more or less an ActiBlizzard property and screwing them out of it through legal shenanigans. I wager once they were done basking in the sweet sweet irony of it all they wouldn't come out on the side of ActiBlizzard

 

[Exort]

Honstly, I don't think how Valve is going to get the trademark, since Icefrog is not the creator of DotA, or even DotA: Allstar which is a fan made version of the real DotA. The real Creators of DotA/AoS is inactive.