DOTA, named after the “Defense of the Ancients” mod for Warcraft III, has become the unofficial name for a new competitive gaming genre, inspiring imitators like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. However, Valve has tried to trademark “DOTA” for their game Dota 2, while Blizzard is developing Blizzard DOTA and doesn’t think that any one company should own the name.
“I can share that our opinion about the situation is that the DOTA name really should belong to the community,” said Blizzard president Mike Morhaime. “I think that it’s been part of the Warcraft III community for a very long time, and we would like to see the community continue being able to use that name, and having an exclusive mark owned by a competitor doesn’t feel right to us.”
Despite the legal shake up, Morhaime says, “We’re very friendly with Valve. So yeah, we do talk to Valve.”
Source: Eurogamer
