Blizzard is evil that's all these anti blizzard people can think, hell blizzard could cure cancer and these people would twist it into something negative.
i'm sure Valve has the best interest of gamers in their heart...i'm sure they aren't doing this out of greed at all /s
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
There are just too many tools in this thread who are running their mouth without knowing anything even remotely close to what Blizzard are planning here, some even speaking on the company's behalf like self entitled PR pricks. What are the odds many here dont even know what DotA stands for or have even seen the game map leave alone play it, but are commenting on it like they know every last detail down to the legality of the matter regarding trademark infringement?
Here is a simple example for all those simple minded people:
Think about the children's book series, Harry Potter. After its release, there has been a whole array of fanfiction centered on that storybook setting, even some fiction that do not use any of the notable JK Rowling characters and some that do not use any chracters or trademarked terms from the original stories at all.
Now in case someone wrote a fanfiction called "101-ways to cook chicken" using the storybook's setting but without using Any characters, terms, trademarked names, etc and then went on to publish Another book called "102-ways to cook chicken" BASED on the popularity of the previous fanfiction using a whole new setting, lore and characters that had nothing to do with Harry potter series.
So now do you think JW Rowling has the rights to sue this guy for "stealing" something he created using a storyline that was involved with her books at one point but who's final content is nothing similar to the books she wrote? Think and think again before answering. The guy who wrote the fanfiction here is IceFrog, the new publishers for his book are Valve and the JK Rowling who is trying to monopolize anything that it can touch is Blizzard here.
The fact is DotA was never a RTS game that War3 was, the game that Blizzard created or intended to make and own. It never had any features that is associated with any RTS game, ie army control, resources generation and management, kill objectives or quest plots, etc. The only thing that even remotely attaches it to War3 is that DotA was a whole new kind of game made using that editor, something that Blizzard played absolutely NO role in. Now they want to claim this title for "Themselves" because they will sooner or later publish a Blizzard-Dota and trademark that name for themselves and the momentum it will gather among gamers with that name alone. Anyone who think Blizzard will not monopolize the DotA trademark is either lying to themselves or are fools. They are the good guys here? That joke isnt even remotely funny, they just want to make money even if its at IceFrog's, Eul's or Valve's expense (not Guinsoo because he played the wise businessman card and made his own game from the DotA concept to earn him those dollars that Blizzard cant get its grubby paws on. ie LoL).
So whats next, Blizzard is going to trademark all the popular War3 usermade maps? LOAP, arena champions, The black road, 3-corris, Defiance, Resident evil themed survival maps, Vampirism and everything else? Maybe not yet since it wont get them enough money, but when it gets popular enough they might just claim it to be their own creation, name and all.
Gotta love it when people call out tools and dont even read the legal documents themselves.
Valve is attempting to trademark the DotA name. They are attempting to seal DotA with Valve and essentially give them right to sue or make money off the name.
Blizzard filed an opposition to this. Blizzard didn't file for a trademark themselves. They basically are arguing that Valve doesn't have right to trademark the name and that Blizzard can be damaged by this action.
People really need to stop hating on Blizzard blindly. Valve is doing the underhanded thing here. Nobody has to file for a trademark and then people can use the term. Yes, I read the entire opposition document Blizzard filed. No where in there is Blizzard stating they will trademark the name or that it already belongs to them.
To sum it up; Blizzard is saying that the DotA name is too closely associated with Blizzard's property and that Valve lacks the right or history associated with the mark for them to take it and in taking it, it will damage Blizzard.
The title of this article is also misleading. There isnt an actual lawsuit cited anywehre in the article. The legal document Blizzard filed is an opposition or arguement to contest against Valve's application to trademark the DotA name.
Don't accuse people of being tools, and then turn around and show that you don't understand what is actually going on. Blizzard is not trying to trademark anything. They are trying to keep valve from trademarking DOTA. If valve successfully trademarks DOTA then nobody else will be able to use DOTA in their title. Once again, Blizzard isn't trying to trademark DOTA if they wanted to do that, they could have done it 8 years ago, but they chose not to. Now Valve wants to trademark DOTA and Blizzard is trying to stop them.
How stupid can you be to think Blizzard is doing this for anyone else's sake but their own. And I'm sure Valve has a pure and good reason to trademark the name? Really?
If you think Blizzard isnt going to somehow try to bank solely on the "DotA" name then your ignorance is absurd. Even if they dont try to trademark the name "DotA" as their own, atleast before preventing Valve from claiming the name. Just they havent done it yet because there was no legal way to prove DotA was their creation As with Valve., what is the bet they will push the trademark envelope once their Blizzard DotA comes out?. Even if they dont do it at this point in time, they obviously want to ride on the coattails on the word "DotA" alone to hike up the box-sales of whatever MOBA / DotA based game they want to sell without having to pay royalties to Valve or Eul or IceFrog, you know the "creators" of DotA Guinsoo, one of the creators BEFORE IceFrog transferred all his ownership and rights of DotA to Blizzard, imagine that.. Its as simple as that, only thing being that Valve got the original modders / creators of the DotA maps on their team No, they dont. IceFrog is an inherited owner and without paperwork backing it, has nothing and have invested a good deal of money on bringing up the DotA community to par in the recent past while Blizzard did nothing for DotA Aside from, you know, advertising it and supporting it in BNet and Blizzcon and granting whatever permissions fansites and tournaments asked for for more than half a decade other than sitting their ass on it and cashing in on the War3 sales due to the popularity of a fan-made mod while focusing developing / publicity efforts on WoW.
This is Exactly like (Im sure someone must have mentioned this already) the creators of C++ claiming trademark infringement BS over software titles created using the programming language, oh yea not for themselves but for the sake of the "community" of modders, developers or whatever random Joe they think of. Ridiculous isnt it? You would easily be able to see this if you have the quotient to figure things out you know. Kinda nothing like this, but keep going, fun read.
As for that guy pushing the ToS/EULA BS over the War3 editor issue, the matter here isnt about Valve, IceFrog or Eul trying to copy Warcraft3 characters or lore, pixel to pixel or word to word. Nor are they using Blizzard's redundant War3 game engine to create DotA 2. If Blizzard tries to work the ToS angle then they are going to end up eating crow. The name DotA and the genre of MOBA games that it popularised is NOTHING related to RTS styled War3 game plan or the editor or anything the ToS covers. Its the intellectual property of a few people who can claim ownership based on factors that also arent covered by the ToS blanket Of which Guinsoo and Pendragon (both assiciated with DotA before IceFrog) gave all their rights to DotA to Blizzard.. I would really like to see Blizzard push this angle, it would be hilarious to see this blow up in their face. But sadly you dont seem to understand the IP safeguards that are in place so you can make such self-righteous comments, but Blizzard would definitely know its safer to work the "war3 platform" angle in their favour rather than risk pulling ToS into the picture which could undermine their claim from the get go.
Gone is the company who made Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne and Diablo 2, its now just a bunch of greed motivated shumcks who want to nickel and dime the players any and every way possible. Company sponsored RMT market for D3 is sure working wonders for the game and company all, aye?
If makes me wonder though, in case WoW wasnt bleeding subs so badly off late, would Blizzard still have pulled this fit over DotA Yes, Valve is the greedy one here.?
You cant be serious. If you are, I might feel sorry for you in another life. Otherwise, keep the good laughs coming.
Meh, I never got this American idea hat you should sue people for as many things as possible (like spilling hot coffee in your own lap and crap), I hope Blizzard loses this one.
i dont understand whats the deal with all the sueings either.... theres a saying in my country that goes "evil weeds never die", so i guess ill never trip and fall at work to become millionaire with a tight sueing
Blizzard is as greedy as it always was and the main reason why they want to prevent that is to claim the rights for the name themselves.
A right that Valve has since the original creator of Dota is working with them on that title.
Other than that, most of the mods had in their descriptions "like dota", instead of being named like that.
Should Bioware now start suing people left and right since tons of mods were created with their aurora tool that was included in neverwinter nights 12 years ago too?
Originally posted by expresso If Valve win no one can use the term DOTA in their game without the risk of getting sued by Valve. If Blizzard win the term DOTA is free for any one to use in any context. Who are the bad guys?
You guys make no sense you cannot trademark a name/word that made it in the public domain. You cannot trade mark "movie" and ask all movie makers to get you your copyright share each time they want to sell a movie, its just absurd. If they allow to TM "Dota" then the guys that took this decision are at fault, its neither Blizzard, neither Valve decision to decide if the word "dota" can be trade marked or not, and probably not even a court can decide it either tbh. There is an institution to take this decision. And in my opinion neither Valve neither Bliz have anything to say in this decision.
Originally posted by Requiamer Originally posted by expresso If Valve win no one can use the term DOTA in their game without the risk of getting sued by Valve. If Blizzard win the term DOTA is free for any one to use in any context. Who are the bad guys?
You guys make no sense you cannot trademark a name/word that made it in the public domain. You cannot trade mark "movie" and ask all movie makers to get you your copyright share each time they want to sell a movie, its just absurd. If they allow to TM "Dota" then the guys that took this decision are at fault, its neither Blizzard, neither Valve decision to decide if the word "dota" can be trade marked or not, and probably not even a court can decide it either tbh. There is an institution to take this decision. And in my opinion neither Valve neither Bliz have anything to say in this decision.
If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.
Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
This is ridiciouls ... DOTA was never blizzard it was made by a community that made an amazing add-on. Valve picked it up and is now capitilzing on and Blizzard is pissed. Shoulda, woulda coulda Blizz good job, more law suits that are not needed...
This is ridiciouls ... DOTA was never blizzard it was made by a community that made an amazing add-on. Valve picked it up and is now capitilzing on and Blizzard is pissed. Shoulda, woulda coulda Blizz good job, more law suits that are not needed...
To me it kinda depends if the guys behind DOTA is okay with th whole thing or not, not if Blizzard is it.
That the name is tied in with warcraft means nothing here, morally is the 3 persons who created DOTA and made it into what it is the one who should have the rights, not Blizzard or Valve.
If Valve pay them it is fine, if not they should not be able to trademark anything at all. In fact even making the game is wrong in that case. But as usual is the media only focusing on the corporations, not the people who actually created DOTA.
If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.
Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?
I am pretty sure Valve is a successful company as well...
Ohhhh blizzards suing valve for Dota so reliq as to suing blizzard for stealing Warhammer 40k lore and stuff
First of all it was warhammer fantasys lore they snatched and secondly they stole it from Forgotten realms who stole it from Dragonlance who stole it from Tolkien.
Stealing lore and mechanics is not something you can sue for or every single game released the last 10 years beside Minecraft would have a lawsuit on it´s hands.
Don't really want to read through so someone may have said this but its pretty straight forward. Blizzard's Eula states that any mod made for Warcraft 3 is the sole property of blizzard. Most games with modding engines have similar clauses that way they can take the most successful stuff and put it into the next version of the game with no charge. They aren't saying valve cannot make the game, I don't believe they are even saying that they cannot call it Dota2. What they are saying is they cannot trademark it, the difference being that blizzard would then have to pay valve to keep allowing its users to play a mod called dota. Which is a huge policing expense for blizzard and Dota still has a strong following on warcraft 3 asian servers.
and it would be hard to argue against blizzard since they ve been making game for a long while .some might whine but blizzard didnt hide it they own what they make 100% from the smallest scrap to the finished product!this might annoy a lot of people but they ve done it for a reason and this is exactly why .to be able to protect themselves in the futur if some tried to appropriate themselves the hard labor of blizzard.they shouldnt close but they should pay royalty to blizzard and stop using the name blizzard product everybody know dota has always been associated with blizzard and just search the web you ll see it go so far back its insane!
Just because a game starts as a mod using one game's engine, doesn't mean the owner of said engine has full rights over any subsequent games built on other engines. IceFrog took over development of the mod, so ownership falls with him. He was hired by Valve, and he with Valve are creating DotA 2.
Blizzard has turned into yet another fat corporate leech, no better than EA or Activision (yes I realize the irony of the last one).
The only problem with the zeal in your comment is that it's mis-targeted. Blizzard is not claiming ownership of the "game" or the "mod" but rather the name. There is a large difference between what you're commenting on and what is actually happening.
As for claiming Blizzard is becoming yet another "fat corporate leech, no better then EA or Activision...." - That's drivel thus far. When they begin releasing titles without regard to "finish", "polish", and "advertised features" then you can make that claim without looking silly. Until then, you're simply making noise.
Originally posted by Loke666 Originally posted by lizardbones
If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.
Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?
I am pretty sure Valve is a successful company as well...
I was just wondering in general...asking which company is now the bad guy implies that one or the other was by default the bad guy, but this suit throws that into doubt. I assumed that the 'bad guy' was Blizzard...but all they've done is make a very successful game.
I'm pretty sure that if they really wanted to, Blizzard could just beat Valve to death with their giant money fists. However, they do own any work derived from the Warcraft 3 mod tools, the same as work derived from the SCII mod tools. Part of that derived work is the name 'DOTA'. More over, Blizzard owns the characters used in DOTA 1 as well because they are derived from the Warcraft 3 mod tools.
Blizzard could probably shut the game down if they really wanted to push it, but what they are doing is saying that anyone can use the name 'DOTA' for a game. This (in my mind) makes Blizzard the good guy. They're spending money to make something free, not to stifle innovation in a competitor.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I would have to disagree completely with this lawsuit. If you read closely, you find that DotA is UNDER LICENSE FROM BLIZZARD, which means the DotA community is accepted under Blizzard's license for Warcraft III despite radically changing the game. HOWEVER, this does not mean Blizzard actually licensed DotA; otherwise, they'd be able to charge for it or do whatever they want with it. They're suing Valve because DotA is associated with Warcraft III, which in turn is associated with Blizzard. This is a bit of a stretch, because DotA is not associated with Blizzard directly on a large scale; in fact, a large number of the fanbase for DotA exclusively plays that and not Warcraft III, at least from my experience with it. So I think DotA has grown so big that Blizzard can no longer claim connection with DotA. Of course, judges and most of the jury won't know that, so it all comes down to the charisma of the lawyers.
Basically, Dota licence should only be claimed by the makers of dota. I side with blizzard on this really, in the fact that you should not be putting a trademark on something you really have no baring on. It would be like if blizzard was to put a trademark on orcs as a race. Sure they use it, but they weren't the first to use it and so they can't go about taking it as their own.
look here Valve has been working on DOTA 2 for 2 years now or more and blizzard just now starts suing it has to do with Valve dota is better then there Blizzard dota game.
Valve just recently applied for the rights to "DOTA". There was no legal - and moral - issue until now.
Valve has no right to claim DOTA as its own, regardless of how much they contirbute to material that fits in the definition.
It has been Blizzard's policy to let people who create DOTA content free use of it, and they were doing that with Valve. Blizzard's only complaint is Valave trying to take ownership of the name.
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
It's as if another company,without Valve's permission, trademarked counter strike(a mod of half life originally) because of its popularity and tried to claim a mod that is originally / publicly used under another game.
I guess the easiest solution from this is to slap the "From the creators at Valve, with Copyright from Blizzard Entertainment" DOTA 2.... Just my opinion, Blizzard gets its name slapped on another product they had nothing to do with, Valve releases a much anticipated game, people like DOTA 2 and decide to try Warcraft III DOTA to see where it came from. Win - Win situation. Also Blizzard can only claim copyright because without Warcraft 3 there would be no DOTA. We shall wait and see, I hope judge just suggests what I think Lol.
Comments
Blizzard is evil that's all these anti blizzard people can think, hell blizzard could cure cancer and these people would twist it into something negative.
i'm sure Valve has the best interest of gamers in their heart...i'm sure they aren't doing this out of greed at all /s
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
Gotta love it when people call out tools and dont even read the legal documents themselves.
Valve is attempting to trademark the DotA name. They are attempting to seal DotA with Valve and essentially give them right to sue or make money off the name.
Blizzard filed an opposition to this. Blizzard didn't file for a trademark themselves. They basically are arguing that Valve doesn't have right to trademark the name and that Blizzard can be damaged by this action.
People really need to stop hating on Blizzard blindly. Valve is doing the underhanded thing here. Nobody has to file for a trademark and then people can use the term. Yes, I read the entire opposition document Blizzard filed. No where in there is Blizzard stating they will trademark the name or that it already belongs to them.
To sum it up; Blizzard is saying that the DotA name is too closely associated with Blizzard's property and that Valve lacks the right or history associated with the mark for them to take it and in taking it, it will damage Blizzard.
You cant be serious. If you are, I might feel sorry for you in another life. Otherwise, keep the good laughs coming.
i dont understand whats the deal with all the sueings either.... theres a saying in my country that goes "evil weeds never die", so i guess ill never trip and fall at work to become millionaire with a tight sueing
Blizzard is as greedy as it always was and the main reason why they want to prevent that is to claim the rights for the name themselves.
A right that Valve has since the original creator of Dota is working with them on that title.
Other than that, most of the mods had in their descriptions "like dota", instead of being named like that.
Should Bioware now start suing people left and right since tons of mods were created with their aurora tool that was included in neverwinter nights 12 years ago too?
Ridicoulos.
You guys make no sense you cannot trademark a name/word that made it in the public domain. You cannot trade mark "movie" and ask all movie makers to get you your copyright share each time they want to sell a movie, its just absurd. If they allow to TM "Dota" then the guys that took this decision are at fault, its neither Blizzard, neither Valve decision to decide if the word "dota" can be trade marked or not, and probably not even a court can decide it either tbh. There is an institution to take this decision. And in my opinion neither Valve neither Bliz have anything to say in this decision.
You guys make no sense you cannot trademark a name/word that made it in the public domain. You cannot trade mark "movie" and ask all movie makers to get you your copyright share each time they want to sell a movie, its just absurd. If they allow to TM "Dota" then the guys that took this decision are at fault, its neither Blizzard, neither Valve decision to decide if the word "dota" can be trade marked or not, and probably not even a court can decide it either tbh. There is an institution to take this decision. And in my opinion neither Valve neither Bliz have anything to say in this decision.
If Blizzard hadn't opted to sue Valve, then they could trademark those words. A lot of these things are determined by whether or not anyone sues over it. Blizzard has a fairly good case in that they own the IP that the trademark was built from. In this case, Blizzard are the good guys because they are suing to get something officially labeled as 'public domain' material, rather than suing to establish ownership over something.
Another question comes to mind for me, why would Blizzard be labeled as a bad guy just for being successful?
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
This is ridiciouls ... DOTA was never blizzard it was made by a community that made an amazing add-on. Valve picked it up and is now capitilzing on and Blizzard is pissed. Shoulda, woulda coulda Blizz good job, more law suits that are not needed...
To me it kinda depends if the guys behind DOTA is okay with th whole thing or not, not if Blizzard is it.
That the name is tied in with warcraft means nothing here, morally is the 3 persons who created DOTA and made it into what it is the one who should have the rights, not Blizzard or Valve.
If Valve pay them it is fine, if not they should not be able to trademark anything at all. In fact even making the game is wrong in that case. But as usual is the media only focusing on the corporations, not the people who actually created DOTA.
I am pretty sure Valve is a successful company as well...
Ohhhh blizzards suing valve for Dota so reliq as to suing blizzard for stealing Warhammer 40k lore and stuff
First of all it was warhammer fantasys lore they snatched and secondly they stole it from Forgotten realms who stole it from Dragonlance who stole it from Tolkien.
Stealing lore and mechanics is not something you can sue for or every single game released the last 10 years beside Minecraft would have a lawsuit on it´s hands.
Don't really want to read through so someone may have said this but its pretty straight forward. Blizzard's Eula states that any mod made for Warcraft 3 is the sole property of blizzard. Most games with modding engines have similar clauses that way they can take the most successful stuff and put it into the next version of the game with no charge. They aren't saying valve cannot make the game, I don't believe they are even saying that they cannot call it Dota2. What they are saying is they cannot trademark it, the difference being that blizzard would then have to pay valve to keep allowing its users to play a mod called dota. Which is a huge policing expense for blizzard and Dota still has a strong following on warcraft 3 asian servers.
and it would be hard to argue against blizzard since they ve been making game for a long while .some might whine but blizzard didnt hide it they own what they make 100% from the smallest scrap to the finished product!this might annoy a lot of people but they ve done it for a reason and this is exactly why .to be able to protect themselves in the futur if some tried to appropriate themselves the hard labor of blizzard.they shouldnt close but they should pay royalty to blizzard and stop using the name blizzard product everybody know dota has always been associated with blizzard and just search the web you ll see it go so far back its insane!
And then Riot Games comes and sues them both, since LoL is basically DOTA (the mod) as a standalone game, which Blizzard doesn't seem to care about...
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
The only problem with the zeal in your comment is that it's mis-targeted. Blizzard is not claiming ownership of the "game" or the "mod" but rather the name. There is a large difference between what you're commenting on and what is actually happening.
As for claiming Blizzard is becoming yet another "fat corporate leech, no better then EA or Activision...." - That's drivel thus far. When they begin releasing titles without regard to "finish", "polish", and "advertised features" then you can make that claim without looking silly. Until then, you're simply making noise.
Hadn't even heard of DOTA until today. Good marketing Blizzard and Valve. But if I was going to buy anything it would be from Valve.
I was just wondering in general...asking which company is now the bad guy implies that one or the other was by default the bad guy, but this suit throws that into doubt. I assumed that the 'bad guy' was Blizzard...but all they've done is make a very successful game.
I'm pretty sure that if they really wanted to, Blizzard could just beat Valve to death with their giant money fists. However, they do own any work derived from the Warcraft 3 mod tools, the same as work derived from the SCII mod tools. Part of that derived work is the name 'DOTA'. More over, Blizzard owns the characters used in DOTA 1 as well because they are derived from the Warcraft 3 mod tools.
Blizzard could probably shut the game down if they really wanted to push it, but what they are doing is saying that anyone can use the name 'DOTA' for a game. This (in my mind) makes Blizzard the good guy. They're spending money to make something free, not to stifle innovation in a competitor.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I would have to disagree completely with this lawsuit. If you read closely, you find that DotA is UNDER LICENSE FROM BLIZZARD, which means the DotA community is accepted under Blizzard's license for Warcraft III despite radically changing the game. HOWEVER, this does not mean Blizzard actually licensed DotA; otherwise, they'd be able to charge for it or do whatever they want with it. They're suing Valve because DotA is associated with Warcraft III, which in turn is associated with Blizzard. This is a bit of a stretch, because DotA is not associated with Blizzard directly on a large scale; in fact, a large number of the fanbase for DotA exclusively plays that and not Warcraft III, at least from my experience with it. So I think DotA has grown so big that Blizzard can no longer claim connection with DotA. Of course, judges and most of the jury won't know that, so it all comes down to the charisma of the lawyers.
Basically, Dota licence should only be claimed by the makers of dota. I side with blizzard on this really, in the fact that you should not be putting a trademark on something you really have no baring on. It would be like if blizzard was to put a trademark on orcs as a race. Sure they use it, but they weren't the first to use it and so they can't go about taking it as their own.
Valve just recently applied for the rights to "DOTA". There was no legal - and moral - issue until now.
Valve has no right to claim DOTA as its own, regardless of how much they contirbute to material that fits in the definition.
It has been Blizzard's policy to let people who create DOTA content free use of it, and they were doing that with Valve. Blizzard's only complaint is Valave trying to take ownership of the name.
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
It's as if another company,without Valve's permission, trademarked counter strike(a mod of half life originally) because of its popularity and tried to claim a mod that is originally / publicly used under another game.
Valve has no right to trademark "Dota".
I guess the easiest solution from this is to slap the "From the creators at Valve, with Copyright from Blizzard Entertainment" DOTA 2.... Just my opinion, Blizzard gets its name slapped on another product they had nothing to do with, Valve releases a much anticipated game, people like DOTA 2 and decide to try Warcraft III DOTA to see where it came from. Win - Win situation. Also Blizzard can only claim copyright because without Warcraft 3 there would be no DOTA. We shall wait and see, I hope judge just suggests what I think Lol.