Valve retains Dota 2 name as Blizzard settles

A trademark dispute between Valve Software and Blizzard Entertainment has been settled behind the scenes, allowing the Steam vendor to retain the Dota 2 name for its upcoming online action strategy title.

Blizzard, meanwhile, has renamed its upcoming title Blizzard Dota to Blizzard All-Stars.

The finer details of the agreement, including cash settlements, were not disclosed. Both companies claim they will not discuss the matter further.

The two PC giants were locked in a dispute after Valve tried to secure the ‘Dota’ trademark for its upcoming game.

Dota has hitherto been the name for a strategy game sub-genre, made famous after a Warcraft III mod – called Defense of the Ancients – became an in internet phenomenon.

Blizzard’s argument was that it didn’t attempt to trademark Dota due to the fact it is a genre, nota brand, but insisted it had to intervene after Valve attempted to control the brand.

Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve, said he was pleased an agreement was secured “without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one".

He added: "We both want to focus on the things our fans care about, creating and shipping great games for our communities."

Blizzard executive Rob Pardo added: "Players just want to be able to play the games they’re looking forward to, so we’re happy to come to an agreement that helps both of us stay focused on that".

"As part of this agreement, we’re going to be changing the name of Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars, which ultimately better reflects the design of our game. We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date.”