Blizzard Disputing Valve’s Trademarking of DOTA

@Klei said:

Blizzard does not possess the name DotA. They never actually paid the modders anything to acquire that name. Since those modders are now working for Vavle, well, it's their loss.

Baoby Kotick should stop envying other children's toys.

Does that mean that Valve should have exclusive access to the Dota name with only one of the original developers under their belt? Valve had nothing to do with Dota's conception and creation, that one dude doesn't own it either, and Blizzard is the only one that has any marginal claim to the term Dota. Blizzard isn't even expressly doing this to keep Valve from releasing the game or changing it's name (though that could be the case but that's just conjecture at this point). All Blizzard is doing is making sure Valve doesn't own the name.

This is the third article I've seen on this topic, and the first that doesn't just straight up say "Blizzard is suing Valve".

@MattyFTM said:

Valve should have never trademarked the term. They have absolutely no rights over the name. It was created by the Warcraft 3 community, it belongs to those community members, or Blizzard depending on the specifics of the EULA. I honestly don't see how Valve have a leg to stand on in this. Naming it DOTA 2 is one thing, the direction they're taking very clearly makes it somewhat of a successor to DOTA, but claiming trademark rights over that name just seems totally weird and illogical.

I agree with everything you just said, but at the same time, can you imagine them putting all of this time and money into a project like DOTA 2 and not owning the name?

If they were to put out DOTA 2 and NOT do this, would there be anything stopping someone from slapping together some shitty little game and naming it 'DOTA Heroes' or something to take advantage of Valve's success? I'm asking honestly because I don't know much about this stuff. And if Valve could stop them for something like marketplace confusion, what's to stop them from doing this to Blizzard's game? Is there anything? Man, this is a real mess.

So why is Valve's "DOTA 2" trademark illegitimate, but "Natural Selection 2" is just fine? DOTA was a mod of a Blizzard game, DOTA 2 is a retail product. Natural Selection was a mod of a Valve game, Natural Selection 2 is a retail product. I've yet to see anyone give a good reason why Natural Selection 2 should be okay and DOTA 2 should not.

The only difference is that Blizzard are being assholes and Valve is not.

@Freezer_Burn: It's nice to see someone actually do a bit of a research before deciding to cover a situation like this.

Blizzard has 0 history of protecting the DOTA name. This won't go anywhere. Valve has already won.

Good. I always thought Valve calling their product 'DOTA II' seemed kind of shitty.

If we take the claims of Blizzard as fact then Id would own Team fortress and Natural selection would be owned by Valve. Killing Floor would be owned by Epic games and so on.

If Blizzard wins this claim it would be very detrimental to people wanting to start a game development career via modding.

@FateOfNever said:

@gringbot said:

@FateOfNever:

Well, if one of the guys doesn't care, and the other is opposed then that's still 0% of Blizzards original creative input. Blizzard is just saying "it was created by our community, therefore we own it".

No, what Blizzard is saying is that "it was created by our community and it should stay belonging to our community and Valve shouldn't be able to trademark the name or term of Dota as a result because it belongs to our community." Valve didn't have any original creative input into the creation of the original Dota either, but they're trying to lay claim to the term all the same. Just because they've made a MOBA game does not entitle them to trademark the term Dota and to deny everyone else the use of that term.

Actually, that is what they are saying by filing their own Trademark just days after Valve did. Owning the Trademark means they own the entire brand and everything related to it. DOTA was made by modders, and Valve hired one of them years later, and are trying to trademark the brand under Valve's name because that's how Publishing works, and we wouldn't have Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, etc, if they didn't. It's just in this particular case the mod was created in Warcraft 3 which has a EULA. But Valve hired one of the original creators, so its really not so far out of place for them to make it into something more then a Mod owned by Blizzard. It's almost like saying that any game made in the Unreal Engine is owned by Unreal. Yeah, there's the EULA, which means they should probably just rename it to something other then DOTA, but what about all the other blatant plagiarizing of games that Zynga does on a near daily basis? The truth is, that the creator should be allowed to work on a game he created with any company that decides to hire him. And creating the trademark is really the next logical step.

@mrpandaman said:

@TennisCaptions:

Valve is trying to trademark "Dota."

Blizzard is attempting to stop that from happening saying that "Dota" belongs to the community and therefore free for everyone. Blizzard is not attempting to own Dota, but keep it free.

If Blizzard owns the trademark that means its owned by Blizzard, they put in the trademark request just days after Valve did. They want to own and market something they didn't even create. I said it to FateOfNever, but it's almost like saying that any game made in the Unreal Engine is owned by Unreal, just because of a few words in a EULA. And of course, Blizzard didn't seem to want to develop DOTA until they found out Valve was doing it instead and actually had a potential market. Besides, how do you know that Blizzard intends to "keep it free"? You need to buy a copy of Warcraft 3 as of now to play it, so how is that free?

Blizzard is right in doing this. People should be aware of what they agree upon.

They should just make it together.

lol I love the Blizzard employee statement's

"this is all about the community. we are doing this for the community, they've been using the term 'dota' freely around our community and we want them to continue to use the word. it has nothing to do with us, it has nothing to do with us trying to create our own DOTA game in starcraft 2. it has nothing to do with the money, it's all about the community. Damn you valve!! how dare you do this to our fans!!"

I am with valve all the way here.

And for their fans. I feel it's a very very small minority who is bummed valve is making this.

Almost everyone is stoked that valve is doing this cause blizzard would probably never touch it, or they would of did a long time ago.

I feel Valve is in a stronger position here. And even if valve doesn't get trademark, they still got the succesor to dota.

and i feel blizzard has way more to lose than valve by having it trademarked. it's basicly the only thing they have going for their blizzard dota at this point.

I don't care if it belonged to the community. The game didn't have any real support behind it. People leaving games, no way of reconnecting, people griefing with no punishment and it is hindered by a 9 year old engine. Valve and Icefrog deserve to take the Dota name. Team Valve!! Fuck you Blizzard!

Technically Blizzard is right, but come on no need be a douche, just let Valve make their game

This is all so dumb. Blizzard needs to make up their mind about what they're suing Valve for. If it's just for the name "DOTA," they're retarded. If Valve was calling it Defense of the Ancients 2, then maybe Blizzard would have *more* of a case -- but it would still be thin, given that I don't think EULA gives you the right to a NAME. This all seems like they're grasping at straws to keep the "DOTA" phrase on their side, so they can make a bigger impact with "Blizzard DOTA."

Sorry Blizzard, I hope you lose and you are the ones who can't call your SC2 addon "Blizzard DOTA."

@CommanderZx2 said:

If we take the claims of Blizzard as fact then Id would own Team fortress and Natural selection would be owned by Valve. Killing Floor would be owned by Epic games and so on.

If Blizzard wins this claim it would be very detrimental to people wanting to start a game development career via modding.

Except that IceFrog didn't work on DotA from the start and the other co-creators disapprove of Valve trademarking the name.

It's iffy, but I'd say Blizzard has a better call to the name (I haven't combed the EULA) as it is was a mod made for their game. IceFrog has, at best, a very tentative claim to anything related to the original dota, since he never even made it to begin with. He served as most recent caretaker, but can't even claim ownership of the dota title in any form.

I fully support Blizzard in doing this, there's nothing douchey about a company protecting its trademarks if they are right in doing so, which I imagine they are. I certainly don't see where Icefrog would have much claim to the title, of anybody involved in this. Unrelated to this is the fact that i think selling a free mod as a retail product (and having the audacity to try to call it a sequel) is sorta smarmy to begin with.

@kyrieee said:

@CommanderZx2 said:

If we take the claims of Blizzard as fact then Id would own Team fortress and Natural selection would be owned by Valve. Killing Floor would be owned by Epic games and so on.

If Blizzard wins this claim it would be very detrimental to people wanting to start a game development career via modding.

Except that IceFrog didn't work on DotA from the start and the other co-creators disapprove of Valve trademarking the name.

Eul.

Guinsoo doesn't matter and fucking Pendragon is not a co-creator.

Should of put a ring on it if they wanted the name...

Quick Valve fanboys to the defense!
 
Blizzard is right in doing this. The name DoTA belongs to the community, loads of people created DoTA genre custom maps for wc3, of course most of them flunked but some became popular. They are not claiming DoTA for themselves (as you say), they are just trying to prevent Valve from trademarking it.  They can still call it DoTA 2. This is not reflected in the Article but should be.
 
Source: http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91202572&pty=OPP&eno=1 (the actual claim)
 
Specifically: "1. By this Opposition, Blizzard seeks to prevent registration by its competitor Valve Corporation ("Valve") of a trademark, DOTA, that for more than seven years has been used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community, under license from Blizzard."
 
DoTA infact was based on Aeon of Strife which was a popular sc1 mod. Icefrog did not "create" DoTA, DoTA All-stars (the most popular DoTA map) was updated and maintained by him for a period of time (and before that time there were other people who worked on All-stars).
 
And really people, stop bringing up Bobby Kotick or "money grabbing", neither has anything to do with this.

@NZt: What about Counter Striker, Team Fortress and the other mods that belong to this and that company? Blizzard are greedy. Valve will be the winner.

The comments on both sides of this are interesting and inflammatory. "You're all wrong... and ugly!"

Very interested to see how this turns out.

What ever DOTA is a fucking stupid name anyway.

Just call it Doda. Defense of Da Ancients.

@nmarchan said:

So why is Valve's "DOTA 2" trademark illegitimate, but "Natural Selection 2" is just fine? DOTA was a mod of a Blizzard game, DOTA 2 is a retail product. Natural Selection was a mod of a Valve game, Natural Selection 2 is a retail product. I've yet to see anyone give a good reason why Natural Selection 2 should be okay and DOTA 2 should not.

The only difference is that Blizzard are being assholes and Valve is not.

Damn good point, although I disagree with the thing about Blizzard being assholes. I mean, why would Valve try to trademark Dota, which was based on another company's product, but not Natural Selection which was based on one of their own? Doesn't that make Valve the assholes, somehow? Man, legal crap is so complicated... I'm just gonna take a backseat and see what happens, because this is all too much for me to even try to debate.

What does DOTA have to do with Dota?

@Rox360: What I'm saying is that this far from the first time a mod of someone else's game has gone on to have a retail sequel. This is the only time I can think of where the developer of the modded game has fought the sequel's trademark. This is why I'm saying Blizzard are being assholes. Valve didn't fight Natural Selection 2. id didn't fight Team Fortress. Epic didn't fight Red Orchestra or Killing Floor. Why is Blizzard the only company that believes they own a trademark that THEY DID NOT CREATE OR REGISTER, just because the mod the trademark refers to happened to be built off of their game engine?

I'm surprised at how many people seem to be on Valve's side here. They're basically whole-cloth copying a free mod, including the name, and then either selling it all for a cost or slapping a whole shitload of microtransactions on it. There's no way it will be free. Are we really alright with this?

@nmarchan: I'm pretty sure all those mods you mentioned are still developed by the people who originally created them. Valve has nobody who made DOTA. They saw dollar signs after MOBAs took off and decided to make a grab.

                   

@Klei said:

Blizzard does not possess the name DotA. They never actually paid the modders anything to acquire that name. Since those modders are now working for Vavle, well, it's their loss.

Baoby Kotick should stop envying other children's toys.

Does that mean that Valve should have exclusive access to the Dota name with only one of the original developers under their belt? Valve had nothing to do with Dota's conception and creation, that one dude doesn't own it either, and Blizzard is the only one that has any marginal claim to the term Dota. Blizzard isn't even expressly doing this to keep Valve from releasing the game or changing it's name (though that could be the case but that's just conjecture at this point). All Blizzard is doing is making sure Valve doesn't own the name.

                   

               

                    @SethPhotopoulos said:

                   

@Klei said:

Blizzard does not possess the name DotA. They never actually paid the modders anything to acquire that name. Since those modders are now working for Vavle, well, it's their loss.

Baoby Kotick should stop envying other children's toys.

Does that mean that Valve should have exclusive access to the Dota name with only one of the original developers under their belt? Valve had nothing to do with Dota's conception and creation, that one dude doesn't own it either, and Blizzard is the only one that has any marginal claim to the term Dota. Blizzard isn't even expressly doing this to keep Valve from releasing the game or changing it's name (though that could be the case but that's just conjecture at this point). All Blizzard is doing is making sure Valve doesn't own the name.

                   

               

At the time,  Unless, of course, I'm seriously mistaken somewhere, the liscence agreement contract did not claim that every single map created was theirs. Which means that, DoTA, even if well reknown amongst gamers, was really not Blizzard's. By hiring the original creator, who rightfully owned the rights the DotA, they also gained the right to work on the property and brand it with whatever name they please. Right now, Blizzard aren't trying to '' keep Valve from owning the name '', what Activision want behind this is to hamstring a seriously dangerous competitor and make money over this.

                   

               

@Klei said:

At the time, the liscence agreement contract did not claim that every single map created was theirs. Which means that, DoTA, even if well reknown amongst gamers, was really not Blizzard's. By hiring the original creator, who rightfully owned the rights the DotA, they also gained the right to work on the property and brand it with whatever name they please. Right now, Blizzard aren't trying to '' keep Valve from owning the name '', what Activision want behind this is to hamstring a seriously dangerous competitor and make money over this.

ICEFROG IS NOT THE CREATOR. PLEASE learn your fucking history. And how the fuck can "Activision" make money on a game that has been free for its entire lifetime? You don't think Valve wants to make shitloads of money on a game that is currently FREE? Good lord.

@LordCmdrStryker said:

@nmarchan: I'm pretty sure all those mods you mentioned are still developed by the people who originally created them. Valve has nobody who made DOTA. They saw dollar signs after MOBAs took off and decided to make a grab.

You realize both Eul and Icefrog work for Valve now, right?

@Klei said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@Klei said:

Blizzard does not possess the name DotA. They never actually paid the modders anything to acquire that name. Since those modders are now working for Vavle, well, it's their loss.

Baoby Kotick should stop envying other children's toys.

Does that mean that Valve should have exclusive access to the Dota name with only one of the original developers under their belt? Valve had nothing to do with Dota's conception and creation, that one dude doesn't own it either, and Blizzard is the only one that has any marginal claim to the term Dota. Blizzard isn't even expressly doing this to keep Valve from releasing the game or changing it's name (though that could be the case but that's just conjecture at this point). All Blizzard is doing is making sure Valve doesn't own the name.

At the time, the liscence agreement contract did not claim that every single map created was theirs. Which means that, DoTA, even if well reknown amongst gamers, was really not Blizzard's. By hiring the original creator, who rightfully owned the rights the DotA, they also gained the right to work on the property and brand it with whatever name they please. Right now, Blizzard aren't trying to '' keep Valve from owning the name '', what Activision want behind this is to hamstring a seriously dangerous competitor and make money over this.

That's not how naming conventions work in the legal world. You don't get to brand and name something whatever you want. Look at the whole fucking shit-storm of Trenched over in Europe. And I'm pretty sure if the original team from Modern Warfare wanted to go make a game just called CoD:MW4 they wouldn't be able to do that either.

@gringbot I haven't seen anything yet that suggests that Blizzard has filed for a trademark of their own. They've filed a denial of trademark claim against Valve, but that is not the same as filing for their own trademark. But if they HAVE filed for their own trademark on it, let me know where it is so I can check it out.

Sounds like an open and shut case to me. Dota was a product of Blizzards tools made available to it's community by them thus falls under the stipulations and ownership rights laid down in it's EULA. I'm no fan of Blizz but seriously Valve is the one being the dicks trying to scoop a name which they had absolutely no rights to. Valve has a history of trying to sidestep any intellectual property problems by just hiring the users who created the game mods (ala Counter Strike) and it seems they're trying the same tactic here once again. Valve could stand to have a very valuable property here so I guess litigation could be a worth while pursuit but imo they're just pissing in the wind. I'd bet a months salary on Blizz winning.

                   

@Klei said:

At the time, the liscence agreement contract did not claim that every single map created was theirs. Which means that, DoTA, even if well reknown amongst gamers, was really not Blizzard's. By hiring the original creator, who rightfully owned the rights the DotA, they also gained the right to work on the property and brand it with whatever name they please. Right now, Blizzard aren't trying to '' keep Valve from owning the name '', what Activision want behind this is to hamstring a seriously dangerous competitor and make money over this.

ICEFROG IS NOT THE CREATOR. PLEASE learn your fucking history. And how the fuck can "Activision" make money on a game that has been free for its entire lifetime? You don't think Valve wants to make shitloads of money on a game that is currently FREE? Good lord.

                   

               

This whole thing seems like a non-issue. Blizzard isn't trying to acquire the trademark of Dota, they just don't want Valve to own it. Plus with them trying to make Blizzard Dota for the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm expansion, they don't want Valve to come in and stop them from producing that map. This will probably just end with Valve keeping the game called Dota but not having full exclusive on it so Blizzard can roll out Blizzard Dota.

I really can't decide which one to root for.

Dota 2 TNT. Spam the bombcast email. Do it.

@Hef said:

Dota 2 TNT. Spam the bombcast email. Do it.

You mean watch 5 people who have no idea how to play DOTA get stomped for 2 hours? Yeah, no thanks.

@MattyFTM said:

Valve should have never trademarked the term. They have absolutely no rights over the name. It was created by the Warcraft 3 community, it belongs to those community members, or Blizzard depending on the specifics of the EULA. I honestly don't see how Valve have a leg to stand on in this. Naming it DOTA 2 is one thing, the direction they're taking very clearly makes it somewhat of a successor to DOTA, but claiming trademark rights over that name just seems totally weird and illogical.

Killing Floor, Natural Selection, Gary's Mod, Team Fortress, Alien Swarm, Red Orchstra--

All commercial games (or soon to be commercial games) that started out as successful, free, community-made mods for games made by another company. These names were all successfully trademarked by their new, respective companies. Just because it was made by and for the community, does not mean it is owned by the community. If that were the case, not even Counter-Strike, The Ship or Day of Defeat would have been able to be trademarked, even if Valve bought out the mod team behind them, since they were mods that were free to the community at first.

@FateOfNever:

Here are the trademarks (thanks to DigitalD)

Valve: http://www.trademarkia.com/dota-85102245.html filed August 6, 2010

DOTA-ALLSTARS (Blizzard): http://www.trademarkia.com/dota-85103667.html filed August 9, 2010

Check out what Blizzard has planned for DOTA: comics, trading cards, moblie phones, etc. It's disgusting, imo.

I read like 5 pages of the comments....and there are way to many dense people here who have not read a single word of some of the other comments. Blizzard is not getting the name for them self. they are trying to get the name to be free for all to use. As it should be. As you know...it is a community made game. Blizzard wants to use it in there game, valve can use it in there game. But valve trying to trademark it is insane.

@SamDrugbringer Well or maybe there could be 1 of them playing and 9 people from the community. You know, like 90% of all TNTs.

@gringbot: So I see they have. And only 3 days after Valve. I don't know that I would say that that stuff is necessarily 'disgusting.' But that's your right to have the opinion that a company having bigger plans for a property than just simply making a game and leaving it at that is disgusting. This is standard stuff for Blizzard properties though. WoW has comics, and trading card games, and mobile devices, books, and strategy guides. Star Craft has books and strategy guides and comics (realize that "comics" could be as little as them printing off a single comic to include in retail copy of a game.)

Regardless of who you side with on this, I think it's important to understand that this is about nothing but business for both sides. Valve isn't wanting to trademark DOTA just for funsies or because it's "the right thing to do" or because of some noble cause. They want to trademark DOTA to make money off of the name (if you think that DOTA won't pull money in for Valve regardless of it being free to play, you're kidding yourself.) Blizzard also wants to make money off of it (as you have, thankfully, provided proof of.)

Honestly I'd be fine with no one getting the DOTA name. As far as I'm concerned everyone should just move on from that title. But I do think it's more ridiculous that Valve wants to put out a game named Dota 2 when they, as a company, never did anything to create the original, and had no connections to the original. As much as people would like to say "Well, Blizzard should have snatched it up in the past 7 years." Couldn't the same be applied to any one of the creators of the original mod? If they wanted that name so bad, shouldn't any single one of them have trademarked DOTA (or tried to) any time over the past 7 years? Especially after it blew up and became a serious thing?

Even if Blizzard loses this I really don't care. Valve will have DOTA 2 and Blizzard will have to rename their DOTA plans. If Blizzard wins Blizzard will get to keep their DOTA names and Valve will have to rename. I'm more and more coming to the opinion that I don't see why it matters. Do people seriously care so much about the DOTA name that if Valve doesn't get the name and get to call their game DOTA 2 that it will have a negative impact on... anything? Both companies are making a grab at the name for business reasons, if it wasn't for business reasons they shouldn't be wasting their time with it.

What it is called really doesn't matter now, the whole DOTA community knows this is the next game in the series. As long as the gameplay holds up to the original, this is as sure a thing as is possible in gaming. Both the creator and most prolific content creator work at Valve... if anyone in the community has a right to the name, it is them.

@FateOfNever: What's disgusting about it is that stealing intellectual property has become "just business", it is a core aspect of Publishers business model, own as many intellectual properties as possible, even if you don't have any plans to use them. But you say that Valve has no connections to DOTA, but that is untrue, they hired 2 of the creators behind DOTA because THE CREATORS wanted to make a sequel to DOTA, one of them being the main influence which most fans praise the most. This is how Valve works, they hire people who have game design talent, and usually they are mod creators, this is how Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, etc came about. They gave the creators real jobs and Valve is essentially the publisher, but also the developer. Blizzard has had absolutely zero design input from anything, and the only right they have over the brand is the fact that the original creators, now working for Valve, made the game on their editor.

The thing that I find disgusting about turning DOTA into comics, cards, and mobile games, is they don't add anything to the true DOTA experience, which is a Video Game. All the merchandising and lore would be created by entirely different people made solely for marketing purposes and to create as much "junk" for people to buy which gives more revenue to Blizzard, using someone else's creative property. But Valve seems to only have interest in making DOTA2 a great game, they don't have any other plans for the brand, it's right there in the Trademark request. Blizzard is free to do whatever they want with their products, but they don't have any right to own someone elses work just because of a few lines of text in a EULA, in my opinion. Blizzards interest in making a DOTA only came AFTER Valve announced they had plans and were working with 2 of the original creators.

I first said it was a bad call for Valve to call it DOTA2, but the more I look into this I realize how wrong I was. This is not Blizzards property, at all. They haven't done anything other then provide the tools for the creators to make their game. This is why I brought up the Unreal Engine example. But it is kind of a big deal if Blizzard wins because then Valve will have to change practically everything in terms of balance and design, because the characters and their abilities is what makes it a DOTA game and would end up with something entirely different. Imagine if some big named publisher wouldn't even let you make your own game, wouldn't that be wrong of them in your eyes? But of course, that wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's a complete dick move on Blizzards part. Truthfully, I would be on Blizzard's side if they decided to hire the creators, and/or made their own official DOTA and marketed it as a brand name before anyone else, and then Valve went off and made DOTA2, but that's not at all what's happening.

@Gonmog said:

I read like 5 pages of the comments....and there are way to many dense people here who have not read a single word of some of the other comments. Blizzard is not getting the name for them self. they are trying to get the name to be free for all to use. As it should be. As you know...it is a community made game. Blizzard wants to use it in there game, valve can use it in there game. But valve trying to trademark it is insane.

Unfortunately, you're the one being dense. Blizzard is doing exactly what Valve is trying to do and more, but they don't have any of the original team in their staff. Here are the trademarks:

Valve: http://www.trademarkia.com/dota-85102245.html filed August 6, 2010

DOTA-ALLSTARS (Blizzard): http://www.trademarkia.com/dota-85103667.html filed August 9, 2010

I have no problem with Valve trademarking the name, because the game is going to be FREE TO PLAY. If Activision/Blizzard ever trademarked it and decided to make a MOBA under that name (however unlikely it is that they would have done that until Valve wanted to) they would surely have charged for it. All this "it belongs to the community" stuff is them trying to play the "we just love our fans" card, when in reality they are playing the "we just love our fucking money, don't you dare take away our chances at it Valve!" card. Team Valve. *drops mic*

@gringbot: If Blizzard wins Valve doesn't have to change anything but the name. If this was about the gameplay then LoL, HoN, and the like wouldn't exist. The only thing this would effect is the name, nothing else. That's what Blizzard is fighting for. If they were fighting for gameplay they would have nothing to stand on because it would be akin to trying to own a genre of game, not just a name.

The problem though with saying Valve hired the guys, so they have the right to the name though is that Valve, themselves, had nothing to do with Dota. They may have HIRED people that did, but as a company (and that's who would own the name, Valve, the company) Valve has no person ties to the name. Blizzard's product, Warcraft 3, has ties to the name. Valve does not. Like I said, for all the people saying "well Blizzard should have jumped on that name a long time ago" I give you "And the people that made Dota should have jumped on it long before that even." Look at it this way in a hypothetical situation. Let's say Valve hired these people to work for them, they make Dota 2, they then promptly fire those two guys and go on to make Dota 3. Should Valve have the right to do so? By the way you're acting towards Blizzard the answer would be no, because the original guys had nothing to do with the creation of Dota 3. So your argument is more that the original creators should own the Dota name, not that Valve or Blizzard should own it. If you want to make the argument to me that the creators of Dota should be the trademark owners (to do with the trademark what they will after that) I would agree. That isn't what's happening though. What's happening is that Valve wants the name. Not the creators, Valve. Just because Valve has two of the creators employed that does not give them the right to a name.

As far as I'm concerned neither one of the companies should actually have a right to the name. The name and term DOTA should just be open because as far as I'm concerned it's akin to trying to trademark MOBA, or FPS, or RPG. It's stupid all the way around.

It's also not stealing an intellectual property. It's not stealing an intellectual property any more than the person that created the second first person shooter in history stole intellectual property. As for the name, that also didn't belong to the people that made the mod. The name Defense of the Ancients would have never come around if not for the fact that it was made in Warcraft 3 and that the premise of the game was to defend the Ancients (a thing that exists within the Warcraft universe.) It's also not stealing intellectual property because the creators agreed to terms before they even made the mod that said "what you make belongs to us." You may think that's stealing, but that's standard practice across all businesses. Any time you submit an idea to a company there's always a little agreement thing you have to sign that says "yes, you have the right to own any of these ideas I just sent you."

Also, yeah, Blizzard created the tools that lead, directly, to the creation of DOTA. What did Valve do to help create DOTA? Did Valve, as a company (again, we're talking about the companies here, not the individuals, because the individuals don't actually matter because the individuals are not the ones fighting for the trademark rights, the companies are. for all you know the individuals actually hate the name DOTA and think the game should be called something else) do anything to cause the creation of the original DOTA? Did they give the tools to anyone to do it? Did Valve donate money to the people to create it? Did Valve support websites for it? Did Valve do anything, at all, as a company, to have any ties to DOTA? What you're talking about, hiring creators, is after the fact and has no true bearing on the matter. The individuals are not going for the trademark, nor have they ever.

Again, I will say, if you want to argue to me that the creators should be vying for the trademark and then should be free to pass it off to Valve if they so desire, I would agree, but that is not the case here.

An another note, you may think that having DOTA comics and so on and so forth doesn't matter or enhance the game at all. I disagree. It may not enhance it for you, someone that only cares about video games within a vacuum. But if, say, the Diablo universe did not have any books or anything, I would care less about that story and that franchise than what I do. If Warcraft had no novels or comics, I would care less about it. The card game aspect, I think, is probably somewhat silly, but, that's because I find tie-in-card-games to be something of a waste anyway, but I wouldn't deny other people that enjoy those games those games based on an idea that "video games should only ever be video games and not branch out into other mediums." Mobile devices can also enhance things (potentially.) I could easily imagine an app being released to interact or have some connection to a MOBA game. I wouldn't use it, but I could easily imagine one existing that people would use.

Also, you cannot say, definitively that Blizzard had no interest until after Valve. The only thing you have to go on is when the trademark requests were filed. And they were filed a mere 3 days apart. With the sheer number of things on the trademark list for Blizzard, I don't think it would be insane to think that it could be possible Blizzard was actually working on stuff before the Dota 2 announcement but that Valve simply beat them to the reveal and to the filing for the trademark. That doesn't inherently mean that Blizzard was doing nothing at all (considering the number of things on their trademark) in regards to Dota.

Consider, if you will, August 9th 2010 is less than 2 weeks after Starcraft 2 launched. Starcraft 2, the tool with which Blizzard plans to launch Blizzard-Dota. Do you truly believe it is so far fetched that that has nothing at all to do with when Blizzard filed their trademark for DOTA and that it only has anything to do with Valve? This really sounds more like you have serious beef with Blizzard as a company because you think they're some evil corporation that hates their fans and wants to steal everyone's ideas. And if that's the case, then there probably isn't going to be much point trying to convince you otherwise. Blizzard has done right by their fans for a long time and they are a company just like any other, just like Valve, they are out there to make games that people will enjoy and to make settings and stories that people will enjoy, just like Valve. They shouldn't be made out to be a bad guy just because they believe in creating franchises that expand beyond just a video game you play and want to take their stories and their worlds to another medium for people to enjoy and show their interest in and dedication to a franchise. Blizzard has also hired their fair share of people from the community, the difference is they don't flaunt it around every chance they get.

Again, as far as I'm concerned neither company should have the DOTA name because Valve didn't do anything to help make the original and Blizzard only provided the tools for it. But if it has to go to someone, Blizzard, as a company, has more claim to it than Valve does by right of where DOTA started. Without Blizzard DOTA wouldn't exist, just as it wouldn't exist within the creators. Without Valve, DOTA would still exist. DOTA has also been associated with a Blizzard product for seven years now. DOTA has been associated with a Valve product for.. what, two years? And it's not even a launched product.