The popular RTS, DOTA has caused a stir between two industry giants
It's being reported over at Kotaku, that Blizzard and Valve are getting themselves all riled up over legal rights to the DOTA (Defence of the Ancients) trademark.
First created as a mod for Warcraft III in 2003, DOTA has since become a fully-fledged game in production at Valve, after the developer hired the mod's creator. DOTA 2 was born, much to fans' delight, and the game is coming along nicely.
In 2010, Valve set about applying for the trademark to the DOTA name, which didn't exactly please Blizzard, but there was no legal scuffling, until now.
Blizzard has spoken up before the US Patent and Trademark Office and argues that it has the stronger case for ownership of the DOTA name and its associated variants. The main points of the argument state that Blizzard, and its fans of Warcraft, have been using and building up the DOTA name for over seven years, and as the original DOTA required Warcraft III in order to be played, and due to the ongoing existing use of the term, it has a stronger case than Valve.
It sounds as though this could get rather ugly, and whether it'll affect the release of DOTA 2 is unclear, but Valve certainly isn't going to let this one lie.
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