Blizzard and Valve Settle DOTA Trademark Dispute

Valve and Blizzard have finally come to terms over the recent trademark dispute over the use of DOTA. Blizzard is to rename it’s Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars while Valve is able to retain the commercial rights to DOTA.

After Blizzard challenged Valve in court over the fact the Valve cannot use the word DotA as it has never offered any service in “connection with any product or service available to the public.” Following this agreement in the US Patent and Trademark Office Trial and Appeal Board, Blizzard will still preserve non-commercial use of DOTA for it’s fan base and following the existing model, allowing player created content.

“We’re pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president, Valve. “We both want to focus on the things our fans care about, creating and shipping great games for our communities.”

“Both Blizzard and Valve recognize that, at the end of the day, players just want to be able to play the games they’re looking forward to, so we’re happy to come to an agreement that helps both of us stay focused on that,” said Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment.

“As part of this agreement, we’re going to be changing the name of Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars, which ultimately better reflects the design of our game. We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date.”