Who owns DotA?
Scythe
Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
in Discussions
<div class="IPBDescription">Blizzard vs Valve: Drunken favourite uncle brawl</div>Required reading: <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/10/doh-ta-blizzard-lawyers-up-vs-valve/" target="_blank">http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/10...rs-up-vs-valve/</a>
Hmm. This is a tricky one. It's kinda sorta a new precedent. The only similar case I can think about is Counterstrike, but in that case Valve hired up the dev team wholesale before releasing CS as a commercial product.
Who owns the labour of love of an amorphous community? Can anyone? Is Valve calling it "DotA 2" sufficiently distancing itself from the original?
I can honestly see both sides of the argument, but I think two of the most beloved game devs entering into a public pissing match is a shame. I think Blizzard are getting ansy about the name because they want to name their new game/SC2 mod "Blizzard DotA". I'd've thought them respectful enough of eachother to share the name. Let Valve make DotA 2, let Blizzard make Blizzard DotA. Let the world be at peace.
--Scythe--
P.S. Please leave aside the similarities between Valve's character concept art and the original War3 character designs. That's a separate kettle'o'fish.
P.P.S.S. Chris, please stay the hell out of this thread.
Hmm. This is a tricky one. It's kinda sorta a new precedent. The only similar case I can think about is Counterstrike, but in that case Valve hired up the dev team wholesale before releasing CS as a commercial product.
Who owns the labour of love of an amorphous community? Can anyone? Is Valve calling it "DotA 2" sufficiently distancing itself from the original?
I can honestly see both sides of the argument, but I think two of the most beloved game devs entering into a public pissing match is a shame. I think Blizzard are getting ansy about the name because they want to name their new game/SC2 mod "Blizzard DotA". I'd've thought them respectful enough of eachother to share the name. Let Valve make DotA 2, let Blizzard make Blizzard DotA. Let the world be at peace.
--Scythe--
P.S. Please leave aside the similarities between Valve's character concept art and the original War3 character designs. That's a separate kettle'o'fish.
P.P.S.S. Chris, please stay the hell out of this thread.
Comments
Valve can (but probably shouldn't) as DOTA was created by the community.
Messy business. :-/
Valve has taken the trademark.
Valve wins the trademark because the name was technically up for grabs.
Blizzard wins the trademark because the circumstantial evidence surrounding the name is enough to convince a judge.
Public domain wins the trademark because dota has become a sufficiently generic description.
Some now unknown 3rd party has the rights to the dota trademark.(I call this the kingmaker scenario)
3 is my personal favorite and most "common sense", but the first two are much more likely to happen.
However,
Valve has Eul, the original creator of DoTA, who based it off of Aeon of Strife( A SC1 map)
Valve also has Icefrog, whom made DoTA Allstars, the most popular version.
They have the people who made DoTA what it is...so I believe they have all the right.
Guisingo or whatever his name is, is a real jerk from what I heard. He tried to destroy the DoTA community to promote League of Legends. I heard a big uproar over this.
Valve has the people, and the right.
However,
Valve has Eul, the original creator of DoTA, who based it off of Aeon of Strife( A SC1 map)
Valve also has Icefrog, whom made DoTA Allstars, the most popular version.
They have the people who made DoTA what it is...so I believe they have all the right.
Guisingo or whatever his name is, is a real jerk from what I heard. He tried to destroy the DoTA community to promote League of Legends. I heard a big uproar over this.
Valve has the people, and the right.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Guinsoo made DotA Allstars. He continued up to version 6.0x (which is a lot; roughly 60% of the current heroes are based on Guinsoo's existing DotA Allstars with some of it based on Eul's). He handed it over to IceFrog. IceFrog probably has done much more work on DotA than Guinsoo at this point though.
However he did try to promote LoL on the official DotA forums (he didn't say anything bad about DotA or Icefrog, he just promoted it).
IceFrog seeing that, left and just made a new site (which is now playdota). Guinsoo + Pendragon was a bit bitter over that.
I honestly don't know the whole story though but that was the gist of it (I was frequently visiting the old official DotA forums back then, so most of this stuff was what I vaguely remember).
Anyway I agree. I think Blizzard is wrong here.
If Valve tried to trade mark DotA in general (rather than "Dota 2"), Valve would be in the wrong but it seems they're only trademarking "Dota 2".
(Wait is Valve fighting for DotA in general or just "Dota 2"?)
So my verdict is that anyone should be able to use "dota" with any combination of capitals in conjunction with another words and be in the clear. Just the term "dota" in itself should not be trademarkable. Much like there are many kinds of soda called "cola" but only one called "coca cola"
Also, Blizzard doesn't need to have filed for the trademark DotA for it to be associated and "owned" by them. You can file for a name or symbol, or you can use it and have it associated with you. I know that much atleast :)
This thread has peacefully ended.
Thank you.
--Scythe--