Heroes of the Storm May Face Difficulties at EU Trademark Offices

[Nikolaz72]

Is the "04.10.2013" respresenting April 10th 2013, or October 4th 2013?

Finland use day/month/year as far as I can see, so according to the above info it would be after the blizz one.

Not saying he didn't have it first, he just didn't file until after blizz had so he's going to have an uphill battle if he wants to fight it.

[edit for terrible mobile phone post]

The guy filed a trademark as a response to Blizzard trademarking the name he had been using for over a year.

Anyway, according to European Trademark law the trademark goes to the first that used the name and was officialy making a product using it. And as Blizzard started the whole renaming business in 2013 and this guy used the name already in 2012 it goes to him. This will be an even battle as money does not hold power over law as incredibly much that they do in the U.S.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Pretty soon there's be no names left to call stuff, because everything will have already been trademarked.

Then the Great Trademark Wars will begin and the bloody battlefield will not be in the forests, the grasslands, the mountains, the seas or even the deserts, but the gruesome places we know only as... the courts!

Or something like that.

That's actually pretty funny to think about.

Now, while I do think that Pohjola's totally in the right here and shouldn't have to rename his product... unless he somehow manages to work out the best deal ever with Blizzard, chances are he's gonna be renaming his product soon. If Blizzard's already trademarked Heroes of the Storm here in the US, they're certainly not gonna consider a name change just to appease one country, and they have the money and lawyers to stall out Pohjola's case.

It sucks, but honestly, not much you can do when a company as big as Blizzard decides to steamroll through without some quick Google checking.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

That last sentence makes it sound like the systems involved need a big overhaul if all thats needed for victory is being big enough.

It's a gross simplification, but big companies stalling cases to their favor isn't exactly an uncommon practice.