You might be happy that Valve seems to be releasing a commercial product based on an old Warcraft III mod, Defence of the Ancients Allstars. Valve are probably happy too. Some of the mod's original creators, though? Less happy.
Riot Games - at which one of the mod's creators, Steve Mescon, works - has filed a competing trademark application for the mod's name in an attempt to block the move (just the trademark, not the actual game). It's not just Mescon with an interest in the case, either; Riot Games operates League of Legends, a game that, to put it gently, is influenced by DotA.
"We have filed for the 'Defense of the Ancients' trademark to protect the work that dozens of authors have done to create the game and on behalf of the millions of DotA players all over the world," Mescon says.
"...The idea that one single company is taking control of the name of something that hundreds of people have contributed to is surprising", he adds. "I believe DotA should always remain a community-owned product that modders, independent developers and game fans can continue to modify and play as often as they'd like".
Original post from Kotaku.com
No comments:
Post a Comment