I'm completely on Blizzards side for this one. DOTA is one of two things in my mind - a blizzard product... or one that can't be owned by anyone but the gaming commnity at large.

face it, DOTA was a warcraft 3 mod. it existed because of a blizzard product, and was ALLOWED to exist through a blizzard product. anyone who's ever worked on a mod for a game such as warcraft 3, starcraft 2, half life, etc. etc. has to know that ANYTHING they make is owned by the company that made the original game. now some companues can be really cool about it like valve with counter strike. the guys who made counter strike could have gotten nothing out of it but because valve saw the potential they paid them for their work.

another good thing to look at is the fact that games like league of legends is out there and don't claim to be "dota" but when a friend asked some of us who were playing it what it was we just said "its like dota" and he understood.

without warcraft 3 there is no "dota" the term/name doesn't exist as a game without it. so how can you claim it as your own? if valve wins they could make "dota" in warcraft 3 be essentially turned off for infringing(sp?) on their name. there's just no way that is right.

you don't have to like blizzard, you may not even want blizzard to win. but you can't say that valve really has any claim to the name. some people say they have one of the original people who made it.. what about the others? they aren't with valve on the issue.


also - i don't think blizzard would have sued if valve didn't try to trademark it. why? because they were already working on a direct competitor called blizzard dota. they've been working on it for probably 2 years now. you'd think they woulda brought it up a couple years ago that "hey! we own dota" back then and not only once valve went after the name.

personally i think dota should just be considered a community name. a term to describe a genre that i guess is also called a moba.. but dota is just a term most gamers know.

 

-----signature-----

You may want to read the first line of the EULA you quoted again.

Last I checked Valve isn't using the editor or the engine that created the mod. That is all the EULA claims to cover legal ownership of. They own the mod and assets used to create said mod, whilst using the editor.

(YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ALL MAPS, LEVELS AND OTHER CONTENT CREATED OR MODIFIED USING THE MAP EDITOR (COLLECTIVELY, “MODIFIED MAPS”) ARE AND SHALL REMAIN THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF BLIZZARD.)

They don't own the terminology DOTA or the style of gameplay. If they did, Valve wouldn't even be using it to begin with.

Blizzard is plain and simple, trying to cockblock Valve from using the terminology so they can use it for themselves.

Of course, I don't think Valve will win in this case, but I do side with them.

P.S. For the record, I am no Blizzard hater.

 

-----signature-----

they don't own the style of game play. what they do own is the map. and the map is called "defense of the ancients" aka DOTA... hence they own dota. i just don't see how valve has any case of owning the name.

in fact, as weak as it may be, they may own the dota/moba gameplay too since that first line also says "other content" which would be the style of gameplay. i don't see them going after it and would be dumb to do so imo. anyways.. the name of the map and "terminology" would fall under the map, levels and other content.

 

-----signature-----

I was not aware Valve used an exact replica, pixel for pixel, of the map created for DOTA and that the DOTA 2 map was created and modified using the WC3 editor.

That EULA seems pretty cut and dry to me.

The map is not the reason for this lawsuit though, the name is. To which they own no legal rights to, or they wouldn't be trying to trademark something similar themselves.

 

-----signature-----

I can't see how they could coopt a name of a mod. I mean, how many WC3 mods were named something already trademarked elsewhere? A quick troll through the maps and mods shows some named Naruto, Fantasia, Tom & Jerry, Castlevania, Left 4 Dead, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Underworld, LoTR, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

Really? They gonna try to trademark any of these? I'm thinking this is gonna turn into a(nother) huge /facepalm moment for Blizzard.

 

-----signature-----

But in turn, what right does Valve have to trademark the name? That is really what is at issue here.

Because they were the first to do it?

Isn't that how it is suppose to work?

 

-----signature-----

As far as I can tell, DOTA is used in a lot of pvp style deathmatch games, and Blizzard doesn't care. What they do care about is someone trying to trademark it like it belongs to them. This I can agree with 100%!

 

-----signature-----

to a degree that's my stance. if i have to choose a side i'll pick blizzards, but in all honesty it's more of a "i don't think valve should be able to" mentality. i still think blizzards case to own the name is greater than valve's.

blizzard has a long list of reasons why DOTA should belong to them.. valve has the fact they filed for it first. not really a fair fight if you ask me and heavily in blizzards favor.

 

-----signature-----

I think Valve gave Blizzard ample time to trademark it themselves. It isn't like DOTA is brand new or anything.

 

-----signature-----