Blizzard request Valve not to take DOTA trademark

In a Eurogamer interview at BlizzCon, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime has reiterated the company’s opinion that Valve should not trademark the term DOTA.

Valve has moved to trademark the term for its game Dota 2, a direct sequel to the hugely popular Warcraft 3 mod. Blizzard is developing its own version in the form of an official StarCraft 2 mod, which it is continuing to call Blizzard DOTA.

Asked if Blizzard was in talks with Valve, Morhaime told Eurogamer that he wasn’t able to comment, but added: “We’re very friendly with Valve. So yeah, we do talk to Valve.”

But he then went on to repeat the stance first outlined by Rob Pardo at last year’s BlizzCon. “I can share that our opinion about the situation is that the DOTA name really should belong to the community. I think that it’s been part of the Warcraft 3 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.”