Defence of the Ancients Allstars was a Warcraft III mod. Now, Valve is trying to trademark the name. That doesn't sit very well with Blizzard, the developers of Warcraft III.
"To us, that means that you're really taking it away from the Blizzard and Warcraft III community and that just doesn't seem the right thing to do," Blizzard's Rob Pardo told Eurogamer.
"[We feel] a little bit of confusion, to be honest. Certainly, DOTA came out of the Blizzard community... It just seems a really strange move to us that Valve would go off and try to exclusively trademark the term considering it's something that's been freely available to us and everyone in the Warcraft III community up to this point."
"Valve is usually so pro mod community. It's such a community company that it just seems like a really strange move to us... I really don't understand why [they would do it], to be honest."
Well, you do. It's because Valve's game, unlike the mod, is a retail product that will sell for money, so a trademark is needed. But we get your point. Just because it's needed doesn't make it kosher.
Valve is already facing a battle in its attempts to trademark the name, with one of DOTA's creators filing a competing trademark in an attempt to retain some sense of ownership over the brand. Which, considering most people want a community-created project to remain something for a community and not for someone to own, is probably missing as much of the point as Valve's own actions.
Valve shouldn't trademark DOTA - Blizzard [Eurogamer]