Blizzard Names Valve In Legal Opposition Over DOTA Trademark

by Mike Bendel February 9, 2012 @ 11:33 pm


Warcraft developer Blizzard has filed an opposition over Valve’s registration of the DOTA trademark back in August 2010. Yes, the two PC gaming titans are duking it out in a court of law.

According to the filing, Blizzard claims Valve has no rights to DOTA mark, pointing to “more than seven years of goodwill” that it has backed the DOTA name with.

Despite having no “official” ties to Warcraft itself, Blizzard asserts the trademark registration will not only damage them, but the “the legions of Blizzard fans that have worked for years with Blizzard and its products, including by causing consumers to falsely believe that Valve’s products are affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by Blizzard and are related or connected to Warcraft III.”

As evidence, Blizzard lays claim to its strong ties to the DOTA mark, noting that it has distributed DOTA mods directly from Battle.net and associated websites. Moreover, Blizzard points out that it has advertised DOTA at several gaming conventions, including its own BlizzCon.

Further, Blizzard says it has “licensed third-parties” to exploit the DOTA mark in cross-promotion with Warcraft on various fansites such as dota-allstars.com, playdota.com, and getdota.com. These arrangements were made “subject to and consistent with the terms of the Warcraft III EULA,” the company says.

DOTA had very strong ties to Blizzard — and still does — but unofficially, a key point that certainly dilutes Blizzard’s arguments from a pure legal standpoint. In any case, we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.

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