Riot Games counter-files for DotA trademark

by Mike Schramm on Aug 19th 2010 12:00AM

The Defense of the Ancients trademark recently filed by Valve is being challenged. Riot Games, the creator of the free-to-play DotA clone League of Legends, has apparently counter-filed, claiming that the trademark should be held by DotA Allstars creators Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, who later worked with Riot on LoL.

The pair filed for the trademark themselves "to protect the work that [original DotA creator] Eul, Guinsoo and dozens of other modders have done to create the game," Pendragon told Joystiq via email. He added that, "if we were to obtain the trademark, we would keep the game and the DotA name freely available to the mod community."

Valve still hasn't returned multiple requests for comment, but of course DotA's most recent author, Icefrog, now works for the company on a project that will "excite " DotA fans, and as long ago as 2008 was reportedly shopping around a full-scale version of the popular mod. Pendragon tells PC Gamer that he'd prefer no one owned the trademark to DotA, but it seems that if Valve is planning to take the name for its own title, Guinsoo and Pendragon will fight for it.

Source: PC Gamer

Tags: defense-of-the-ancients, eul, guinsoo, icefrog, pc, pendragon, riot-games, trademark, valve

Reader Comments (36)

I'm pulling completely for Riot on this one. sucks that it had to come to this but it's their only option when a big company tries to trademark something from the community. Valve or not.

@Cleric
Or it could be that they fear a Valve DOTA game will be insanely popular, thus over shadowing their own game, just to take the cynical view on this

@RobS the 3rd

True, But They own it as they are the Creators of DoTA.

@The MARIO
But technically they don't since they never filed a trademark for it, thus why they have to try'en derail Valve now and claim it for themselves.

@The MARIO

Except that they are pretty much not affiliated with it in any way more. Icefrog (A valve employee and the one behind Valve's Dota clone) is the one who continues to update WC3 Dota and is the guy who made Dota into the huge hit it is today. Even despite working at Valve and making his own game.

@Cleric I dunno, I think Valve could do better. They have an insane level of polish and they support the crap out of their games.

I dont understand why they want to keep the name. From what I know there is only one game with the acronym "DotA".

I sense...

*Puts on sunglasses*

A big Riot on our hands.

uh... yeeah?

@Shadowbender
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!

So are they filling for "DOTA" acronym or the actual name?

@The Aquacharger

I would imagine both. Though even if they do acquire this, it won't stop valve from making something similar without the established name.

@Xiegfried
For the acyronm I find stupid. Name, eh, but this really is nothing but fear for them. Valve didn't even stop the port job of Half-Life DECAY for the PC by fans.

The devs are pretty active on the League of Legends forums, They are the original Creators of the WCIII Mod, I don't see how someone else can come in a call their game "DotA",That's why HoN is what it is Valve should had called it something else, Still can i believe.

@The MARIO

but.. they're not the original creators of DotA. Hell, DotA wasn't even the original name. It started as Aeons of Strife in StarCraft.

The original DotA was made by Eul.

To be fair, If valve creates a Dota'esque game they don't really need the name. So why they try to take the name baffles me.

Vi sitter här i venten och spelar lite DotA.

I hear you mannnnn

@ALBGunner04

Gah, beat me to it.

This is the most riveting thing since that Infinity Ward thing.

Important things to note here since a lot of people commenting are obviously unaware:

1. Neither of these guys were the original creators of DOTA.

2. NO ONE played DOTA until Ice Frog took over and made it good

so i dont know what these guys think they have over Valve.

@NutMan

It really isn't about who owns it, just that no one uses it. I imagine they see this as a slippery slope of "someone makes a mod, we trademark the name, then we can force the original developers to quit for copyright infringement". Is that the Valve that you and I know? No. It still muddies the waters a bit to have a commercial game with the same name and mechanics as the mod, though. There's bound to be some confusion if they keep to that path.

That is why I am all for Valve not having it. They're creative. It's only as hard as creating a new name and filing a new trademark.

@NutMan

Point one is correct but two is completely false. DotA was the most played custom game in RoC back when Eul was updating it. I played it heavily while Kegsta and Sesshoumaru were in charge.

When TFT was released the triggers didn't work properly, to play true DotA you had to load up RoC (which reduced its popularity drastically).

DotA was far superior to the crappy clones in TFT (one of them being Allstars) - the problem with the clones is that they removed all the team aspects and just inflated the power of the items (which were kept in check in DotA to keep things balanced).

The most enjoyable part of DotA was playing the healer (which no one did 'cause they sucked on their own) and teleporting in / healing an ally and forcing the enemy back. That and the Aquasoul stat boosting / mirror image tower cheesing.

Hmm. Regardless of who has the best claim to the name, I hope Valve is able to reach an amicable solution. They have a very loyal fanbase, and I'm sure many of us would be uneasy at signs of evil-corporation activities.

Besides, no one wants to be a dick to the little guy, right?

I don't see why Valve just can't use another name? HoN and LoL have a massive player base and neither have ANY connections to the warcraft universe ( which DotA is based on ).

I'm siding with Riot with this one ( even though Pendragon is kind of a jerk ). DotA was largely maintained by the community. It survived only as a mod and it grew not only because of creative developers but a willing player base that gave feedback and continued to work on areas that the game lacked by introducing third party programs like banlist and currently dotacache.

The DotA name represents not only the creators but the community too. Also, who would want to play the same game twice? Just use a new name godamn it.

@ZGiSH

Uh, well last time I checked, HoN was pretty much a carbon copy of DotA heroes and the same tired map.

@Its X with Guns

Also, giving DotA credit as a community is laughable. The community treats new players like shit. That community should end. The game is fine, but the people who play it are most often super douches.

Looks like the hissy fit escalated.

What're we going to call DoTA-style gameplay if we can't call it DoTA-Style gameplay?
Also, does anybody else think that Basshunter should help arbitrate this matter?

@Ozewa

It's called a MOBA, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

I don't think it matters who originally made it, the current developer, IceFrog, is now working at valve, so I don't think it's wrong for them to call this DotA. This way they can keep all the characters DotA already has, and build upon that, instead of starting from scratch.

Has Valve even confirmed that this has anything to do with the WC3 mod?

It might just be a similar acronym for hype, but have nothing to do whatsoever with the aforementioned game.

Just a thought.

Really? Wow.
I hope they lose half of their user-base for going after FREAKING VALVE.

Oh come on. They would just not be allowed to call the game DOTA, only DotA or something. This is really just nitpicking now.

Honestly Valve should with draw that trademark, and make a DOTA game so great nobody even remembers the name League of legends. Then sell it for something dirt Cheap to guarantee every one picks it up.

To date August 18th 2010, I log on to league of legends and my main screen has an error message. The person I team with was unable to log on due to some problem. Random disconnects happen through out the game, Afkers galore. And yet they have time to police the industry? Fix your game before you can speak about keeping the integrity of the industry intact.

I wouldn't have picked a fight with a Gaming power house that gives Amazing games away for free, like Portal and Alien Swarm, and allows and encourages people to mod their games at will. But hey that's me.

To all those people who argue that Guinsoo deserves the trademark name since he is the creator of dota, you're misinformed. Eul created the original Defense of the Ancients so by your argument, he should be the one who deserves the title. Guinsoo attempted at a TFT port of the game, but was seen by most people as a fail port, seeing how all the heroes were imbalanced. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say no one played the mod. Icefrog, the current modder, picked up DotA: Allstars (This is the name Guinsoo used) and made it the popular game as you know it.
If Icefrog, as the current modder of DotA: Allstars, decides he wants to work for Valve as the article implies, then sure he deserves to publish the game under its original name.
tl'dr: Ethically speaking, if anyone were to own rights, it would be Icefrog.

I think riot is just wanting attention, they can't do anything about this cause they have no rights to it. Icefrog put more work into DotA than guinsoo did, and pendragon made a silly website.

Defense of the Ancients

Riot Games counter-files for DotA trademark

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:02AM Cleric said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:05AM RobS the 3rd said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:19AM The MARIO said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:37AM RobS the 3rd said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:29AM zerokku said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 2:19AM Integral said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:05AM DarknessBear said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:05AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:06AM copa said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:10AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:12AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:28AM Xiegfried said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:47AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:12AM The MARIO said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 11:40AM Piemonkey said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:18AM context said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:23AM ALBGunner04 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:29AM Xiegfried said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:29AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 12:53AM NutMan said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:14AM Its X with Guns said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:59AM dkffiv said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:09AM TheBrainninja said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:10AM ZGiSH said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:15AM Its X with Guns said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:18AM Its X with Guns said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 1:59AM Zamzoph said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 2:14AM Ozewa said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 11:33AM Zamzoph said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 3:09AM future42 said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 4:45AM mamudoon said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 6:59AM rullers said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 8:44AM RedViv said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 11:28AM zsavior said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 8:39PM TripleNipple said

Posted: Aug 19th 2010 11:57PM Damyn said

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