Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA trademark disagreement
Blizzard DOTA renamed Blizzard All-Stars.
Blizzard and Valve have settled their disagreement over use of the DOTA name.
Valve gets to use it in a commercial setting, while Blizzard retains non-commercial use of the title for its community, with particular regard to player-created maps for Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2.
As a result, Blizzard has agreed to rename it's forthcoming Blizzard DOTA project. It'll now be known as Blizzard All-Stars.
"Both Blizzard and Valve recognise that, at the end of the day, players just want to be able to play the games they're looking forward to, so we're happy to come to an agreement that helps both of us stay focused on that," commented Blizzard exec Rob Pardo.
"We're pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one," added Valve boss Gabe Newell.
"We both want to focus on the things our fans care about, creating and shipping great games for our communities."
Both titles are currently without a firm release date.
The conflict dates back to last Autumn when Valve registered a trademark for the DOTA name. However, Blizzard duly objected, claiming Valve had no right to claim ownership of a brand that started life as a variant of its own Warcraft 3.
"By this Opposition, Blizzard seeks to prevent registration by its competitor Valve Corporation of a trademark, DOTA, that for more than seven years has been used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community, under license from Blizzard," read its statement at the time.
"By virtue of that use, the DOTA mark has become firmly associated in the mind of consumers with Blizzard, including to signify a highly popular scenario or variant of one of Blizzard's best-selling computer games, Warcraft 3."
"By attempting to register the mark DOTA, Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the mark DOTA and in its Warcraft 3 computer game 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 3."