Blizzard opposes Valve's Dota trademark

Blizzard Entertainment has requested that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) block Valve's application for theDefense Of The Ancients (Dota) trademark.
In its filing, Blizzard opposes the entire scope of Valve's filing, arguing that Dota, a mod of Blizzard's Warcraft III, has been "used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community" for seven years, and that Valve's attempt to secure the mark ahead of the release ofDota 2, which is due this year, should be refused.
"In contrast to Blizzard, Valve has never used the mark in connection with any product or service that currently is available to the public … Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed, and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans of Warcraft III."
It's an odd case - neither company can claim definitive rights to the name given that it was a community mod in the first place and, over the space of several years, splintered into several other mods. BValve's Dota 2 is based on Dota-Allstars, and is being designed by IceFrog, a key figure in the evolution of Dota who was hired by Valve in 2009.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/bliz...dota-trademark