I'm glad Blizzard finally did this. I never understood how Valve could just take DOTA over without even approaching Blizzard and create a sequel to a game they never had anything to do with. Just feels wrong IMO.

I'm glad Blizzard finally did this. I never understood how Valve could just take DOTA over without even approaching Blizzard and create a sequel to a game they never had anything to do with. Just feels wrong IMO.

I don't know the whole back story but isn't this like iD suing Valve over Team Fortress?

Smells of activision taint.

If the guys who made DOTA, who were never employed by Blizzard, are now working at Valve then it certainly seems like morally Valve have a stronger claim to the trademark than blizzard do.

The first version of Defense of the Ancients was released in 2003 by a mapmaker under the alias of Eul who based the map on a previous StarCraft scenario known as "Aeon of Strife". After the release of Warcraft's expansion The Frozen Throne, which added new features to the World Editor, Eul did not update the scenario. Other mapmakers produced spinoffs that added new heroes, items, and features.

Among the DotA variants created in the wake of Eul's map, there was DotA Allstars, developed by modder Steve Feak (under the alias Guinsoo); this version would become today's dominant version of the map, simply known as Defense of the Ancients

Shortly following a Q&A by IceFrog on the website of Defense of the Ancients, elaborating on his recruitment by Valve, a trademark filing claim was made by the company on August 6, 2010. Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, the original developer of the DotA Allstars variant and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, the creator of dota-allstars.com and director of community relations for Riot Games, expressed their concern that Valve should not trademark the DotA name, due to their views that it should remain as a community asset.

On August 9, 2010, Mescon filed an opposing trademark for "DOTA" on behalf of DotA-Allstars, LLC, a subsidiary of Riot Games, in order to "protect the work that dozens of authors have done to create the game". Rob Pardo, the executive vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Warcraft III, expressed a similar concern, explaining that the DotA name should remain within the Warcraft III community.

Blizzard acquired DotA-Allstars, LLC from Riot Games in 2011, to enforce their claim as not only the creators of the Warcraft III World Editor, but to have the rights from a company that made a claim to the mod previously. During the game's unveiling at Gamescom 2011, Gabe Newell explained Valve's perspective on acquring the trademark, which was that IceFrog desired to develop a direct sequel to DotA and that players would likely recognize it as such. Blizzard filed suit against Valve in November of 2011, citing the Warcraft III World Editor and their ownership of DotA-Allstars, LLC as a proper claim on the franchise.

I'm glad Blizzard finally did this. I never understood how Valve could just take DOTA over.

Blizard and dota are related as much as ID owns Call of Duty franchise because they were on the same engine at some point once in their life.

The thing is Eul also works at Valve

Smells of activision taint.

I'm glad Blizzard finally did this. I never understood how Valve could just take DOTA over without even approaching Blizzard and create a sequel to a game they never had anything to do with. Just feels wrong IMO.

if valve release dota as free to play i think blizzard won't have much of a case

What does releasing the game FTP have to do with a trademark application?!

Wasn't there was some commentary a while back regarding the Blizzard's game editor EULAs, to the effect that anything built with it is Blizzard's property?

It's a license apparently.

This will be interesting though, if Valve does get the trademark, I don't see it being that big of a deal. People will just name DOTA clones something else like LoL and HoN did. Ta da, circumnavigated the system.

You mean if Valve doesn't get the trademark?

@Timmeh As like in coding a program in a C++ compiler = the C++ compiler's property?What happened to logic?

F2P doesn't mean they won't be looking to make a profit Eorl. If the game wasn't going to be making them money in some way, they wouldn't be making it.

I wonder if a EULA holds the same in every country?

I doubt valve would be the one to challenge the validity of EULA's though.

Wasn't the DOTA map created before Blizzard changed their EULA to say all your created content are ours?I thought that their EULA was updated late last year.