MMO leader Blizzard has filed against Valve in an attempt to stop it trademarking DOTA, claiming the name has been used in exclusive association with the Warcraft series for more than seven years. It was filed late last year but just recently came to light.
DOTA -- Defense of the Ancients -- started life as a mod of Warcraft III. The mod's creator, going by the name of Icefrog, was picked up by Valve to create a full-fledged sequel, and Blizzard isn't too happy about it.
"Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the mark DOTA and in its Warcraft III computer game," claims the suit, "and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans of Warcraft III.
"Valve has no right to the registration it seeks. If such registration is issued, it not only will damage Blizzard, but also 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."
This isn't the first time DOTA has been seen in a courtroom. Last year, Riot Games' Steve Mescon tried to counter-file the Defense of the Ancients name in order to "protect the work that dozens of authors have done to create the game."
It is quite the knotty situation. On the one hand, Blizzard has played no active role in the success of DOTA, outside of incidentally providing someone with the tools. On the other, DOTA has been intrinsically linked to Warcraft for a long time and Valve's move to swipe the mod away for its own publishing purposes was audacious at the very least.
Whoever's in the right, it's a shame to see them fighting. Give it another few years, and there won't be one game company that's not sued another one.
[Via @DevinConnors]
Contest:
9:20 AM on 02.10.2012 | 
This would be like Bethesda getting angry that the team that did Nehrim decided to make a retail version sequel with EA or Activision or something.
If they aren't reusing assets or, more importantly, code from the mod and the Warcraft engine, Blizzard just needs to deal with it and realize that the next time there's a valuable mod with a dedicated developer that they should try to hire them.
That's the Activision in Blizzard talking. Legally, we'll see who is right. Whether or not the courts will support the Bnet EULA based on the time of Warcraft III is yet to be seen.
I see restaurant owners buy their ingredients from Sam's; does that mean the profits should be split and Sam's deserves credit?
A man bought a game with mod tools and designed a hit; Blizzard-Activision thinks his idea is theirs?
ActiBlizzion had more than enough time to make this an official thing, properly trademark it and they didn't make a move toward it. Valve just did want Valve always does - look for talent in the mod community and recruit the best and brightest to make games for them, which created a key player in the creation of DOTA, as I understand it.
It might be a little shady on Valve's part to the people who had a hand on DOTA's evolution - but those people aren't part of Blizzard and they're not suing, just grudging at this point.
Blizzard has no case, they failed to make it official and have no right to act like they ever tried now.
Blizzard and Valve are two community oriented companies. I'm sure those communities will take care of clarifying the whole thing to the confused ones afterwards.
I thought it a bit weird when I heard that it was Valve and not Blizzard that took DOTA under its wing. Changing the name would only allow some closure.
The history is confusing, complex and fucked up, but the only real certainty is that Dota is a mod which wasn't going anywhere, then Valve made a sequel. I'm pro-Valve overall, but I'm not shocked that Blizzard wants to get involved.
1) The 'we own everything you make with the editor' clause has existed as far back as Starcraft.
1) Icefrog is NOT the creator of DoTA, not even close. He is/was the team leader on the latest branch bearing the DOTA name. Though I have the impression that he has gone to some lengths to imply that he created it.
Yea. The idea started with Eul, became "DotA" with Guinsoo, then Icefrog helped develop it into the DotA we know today.
However, this whole DOTA thing has been shady as shit. Imagine what would happened if Blizzard had hired Minh Le and Jess Cliffe and asked them to make a game called Counter Strike 2, which should be fair, since CS is nothing more than a mod of Half-Life. I doubt Valve would have taken it lightly...
IMO Valve should have named the game something better, anyways.
But I don't really believe this whole modders rights angle that Blizzard took. Weren't they developing their own Dota sequel recently?
Highly uncharacteristic of Valve...weird. Still going to play it all the time though.
Blizzard are not claiming the game/idea.
They're saying the name DOTA isn't Valve's to trademark, and they're correct. All Valve have to do is rename it.
First of all the dispute is about the DOTA trademark not the ownership of the mod itself. So your analogies are invalid. A better analogy would be if someone tried to sell their creations using a brand name.
Second, Blizzard is not claiming (as far as I can tell) that the DOTA trademark belongs to them, but rather that Valve has no right to it. And I agree. The DOTA name should belong to no one and everyone. Valve appropriating the name for themselves was a dick move.
Maybe Valve's Lawyers could fight Blizzard's Lawyers in a DOTA round robin for the name, a la Mojang-Zenimax.
People like to placate themselves with the notion that Activision and Blizzard are two wholly separate entities but there was a tectonic shift in approach when that merger happened and it shows itself in every little bit of price structuring which has happened since.
My thoughts exactly.
I'm guessing this is more of an Activision thing than Blizzard. Blizzard didn't care enough to support the mod(I feel stupid using that word, since it's more of a custom map type than a full "MOD") so it's not really a big loss for them other than the unofficial name because let's face it, the "genre" is a niche within a niche, at best.
VALVe did the same thing with Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Portal, they buy up developers and make their mods into official releases. That said, they aren't at fault here, they are simply being good ol' Red-blooded American Capitalists. Activision is just sore it got beaten to the punch.
#TeamVALVe
Blizzard isn't trying to lay claim to it, they are objecting to Valve laying claim to a name associated with Blizzard for years.