To whom does Dota belong to?

The answer is simple: It’s up to the jury to determine that

Without question, DotA is a world renowned name in the spectrum of gaming. DotA, or ‘Defense of the Ancients’, is a multiplayer online battle arena mod which was released for the video game ‘Warcraft 3’, all the way back in 2003. After 14 years of exponential growth, without surprise, younger companies such as Lilith and uCool have started creating mobile games dangerously similar to DotA. Valve and Blizzard were not amused and thus, sparked a lawsuit.

On paper, DotA and other branches (Dota, Dota 2) are the children of Blizzard, Valve, Icefrog, Guinsoo and Eul respectively. (Eul being a creator).  Lilith and uCool would never achieve victory by denying any infringement, especially when similarities are found starting from the name of the games, such as ‘Dota Legends’ which has since been abolished. (Another game which was also highlighted was ‘Heroes Charge’ which remains purchasable.) Therefore, these keen developers have struck from a different angle, with surprising claims that contradict the stated ownership of the title to the mentioned developers and creator. This immensely spiced up the case, drastically adding tension and anxiety.

The foundation on which uCool cements this argument is regarding recently added content to the newer title ‘Dota 2’, which apparently strips all of these developers of any ownership.  ‘Dota 2’ contains constituents from the ‘DotA All-Stars custom’ map which gradually launched itself into becoming the most popular rendition of ‘DotA’ in ‘Warcraft 3’. Continuing with uCool’s reasoning, since this custom map has no official owner, then correspondingly, DotA has no owner and accordingly belongs to the community. In my opinion, this ounce of reasoning is rather sketchy, since all of DotA’s popularity has not been generated from a single title, but then again, the jury shall decide. Note how uCool is involved individually, with Lilith indifferent, perhaps due to a lack of confidence?

In response to this ‘by the people, for the people’ attitude, Blizzard and Valve have rightfully denied everything, showing not a glimmer of doubt over the entitlement of the intellectual property. Yet, they stab themselves in the back with an unexpected forum post extracted from 2004, created by none other than Eul, a contributing creator to DotA:

From this point forward, DOTA is now open source. Whoever wishes to release a version of DOTA may without my consent, I just ask for a nod in the credits to your map.

Naturally, uCool pounced on this opportunity, this quote being an essential part to their case.  Presiding judge Charles Breyer, however, didn’t make much of it and calmly denied the company’s appeal for concise judgement. Breyer’s outlook on the forum was that Eul used poor language to demonstrate his surrender of a few rights, but not all. The presiding judge has also created an impressive summary of the case which withholds all the details and history of the ‘DotA’ property. Included is a ridiculously comprehensive timeline of development, with depositions and puzzling problems to be solved by the jury.

Breyer writes that;

The record contains ample evidence that Eul, Guinsoo, and IceFrog were the masterminds behind their respective versions of Dota and DotA All-stars.

Presiding Judge; Mr Breyer

At the moment, the case is frozen at a stand-still, with both sides eagerly waiting for the jury’s consultation to begin. The world of gaming holds its breath, ready to find out who the true owner of DotA is. Nevertheless, DotA will always remain a beloved game which many say could be the world’s first and greatest MOBA.