Originally posted by lizardbones

If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.

Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?

 

I am pretty sure Valve is a successful company as well...

Ohhhh blizzards suing valve for Dota so reliq as to suing blizzard for stealing Warhammer 40k lore and stuff

Originally posted by Iudicium

Ohhhh blizzards suing valve for Dota so reliq as to suing blizzard for stealing Warhammer 40k lore and stuff

First of all it was warhammer fantasys lore they snatched and secondly they stole it from Forgotten realms who stole it from Dragonlance who stole it from Tolkien.

Stealing lore and mechanics is not something you can sue for or every single game released the last 10 years beside Minecraft would have a lawsuit on it´s hands.

Don't really want to read through so someone may have said this but its pretty straight forward.  Blizzard's Eula states that any mod made for Warcraft 3 is the sole property of blizzard.  Most games with modding engines have similar clauses that way they can take the most successful stuff and put it into the next version of the game with no charge.  They aren't saying valve cannot make the game,  I don't believe they are even saying that they cannot call it Dota2.  What they are saying is they cannot trademark it, the difference being that blizzard would then have to pay valve to keep allowing its users to play a mod called dota.  Which is a huge policing expense for blizzard and Dota still has a strong following on warcraft 3 asian servers.

and it would be hard to argue against blizzard since they ve been making game for a long while .some might whine but blizzard didnt hide it they own what they make 100% from the smallest scrap to the finished product!this might annoy a lot of people but they ve done it for a reason and this is exactly why .to be able to protect themselves in the futur if some tried to appropriate themselves the hard labor of blizzard.they shouldnt close but they should pay royalty to blizzard and stop using the name blizzard product everybody know dota has always been associated with blizzard and just search the web you ll see it go so far back its insane!

And then Riot Games comes and sues them both, since LoL is basically DOTA (the mod) as a standalone game, which Blizzard doesn't seem to care about...

Originally posted by Ceridith

I call bullshit on Blizzard.

Just because a game starts as a mod using one game's engine, doesn't mean the owner of said engine has full rights over any subsequent games built on other engines. IceFrog took over development of the mod, so ownership falls with him. He was hired by Valve, and he with Valve are creating DotA 2.

Blizzard has turned into yet another fat corporate leech, no better than EA or Activision (yes I realize the irony of the last one).

 

The only problem with the zeal in your comment is that it's mis-targeted. Blizzard is not claiming ownership of the "game" or the "mod" but rather the name. There is a large difference between what you're commenting on and what is actually happening.

As for claiming Blizzard is becoming yet another "fat corporate leech, no better then EA or Activision...." - That's drivel thus far. When they begin releasing titles without regard to "finish", "polish", and "advertised features" then you can make that claim without looking silly. Until then, you're simply making noise.

Hadn't even heard of DOTA until today. Good marketing Blizzard and Valve. But if I was going to buy anything it would be from Valve.

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Originally posted by Loke666

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Originally posted by lizardbones

If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.

Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?

 

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I am pretty sure Valve is a successful company as well...

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I would have to disagree completely with this lawsuit. If you read closely, you find that DotA is UNDER LICENSE FROM BLIZZARD, which means the DotA community is accepted under Blizzard's license for Warcraft III despite radically changing the game. HOWEVER, this does not mean Blizzard actually licensed DotA; otherwise, they'd be able to charge for it or do whatever they want with it. They're suing Valve because DotA is associated with Warcraft III, which in turn is associated with Blizzard. This is a bit of a stretch, because DotA is not associated with Blizzard directly on a large scale; in fact, a large number of the fanbase for DotA exclusively plays that and not Warcraft III, at least from my experience with it. So I think DotA has grown so big that Blizzard can no longer claim connection with DotA. Of course, judges and most of the jury won't know that, so it all comes down to the charisma of the lawyers.

Basically, Dota licence should only be claimed by the makers of dota. I side with blizzard on this really, in the fact that you should not be putting a trademark on something you really have no baring on. It would be like if blizzard was to put a trademark on orcs as a race. Sure they use it, but they weren't the first to use it and so they can't go about taking it as their own.

Originally posted by millaren

look here Valve has been working on DOTA 2 for 2 years now or more and blizzard just now starts suing it has to do with Valve dota is better then there Blizzard dota game.

 

Valve just recently applied for the rights to "DOTA". There was no legal - and moral - issue until now.

Valve has no right to claim DOTA as its own, regardless of how much they contirbute to material that fits in the definition.

It has been Blizzard's policy to let people who create DOTA content free use of it, and they were doing that with Valve. Blizzard's only complaint is Valave trying to take ownership of the name.

;)

It's as if another company,without Valve's permission, trademarked counter strike(a mod of half life originally) because of its popularity and tried to claim a mod that is originally / publicly used under another game.

Valve has no right to trademark "Dota".

I guess the easiest solution from this is to slap the "From the creators at Valve, with Copyright from Blizzard Entertainment" DOTA 2.... Just my opinion, Blizzard gets its name slapped on another product they had nothing to do with, Valve releases a much anticipated game, people like DOTA 2 and decide to try Warcraft III DOTA to see where it came from. Win - Win situation. Also Blizzard can only claim copyright because without Warcraft 3 there would be no DOTA. We shall wait and see, I hope judge just suggests what I think Lol.