A David-vs-Goliath struggle over a game name trademark jumped on board this month’s biggest legal rollercoaster. As we reported a few years ago, the owner of 2017 indie browser game Warzone and Activision-Blizzard (which launched Call of Duty: Warzone in 2020) are suing and counter-suing each other over who deserves the rights to this name. Now, the indie developer published a letter that it sent to Microsoft that informs the software giant about his side of this argument.
“Since our client’s Warzone game attracts active users internationally, predating Activision’s development and advertisement of Call of Duty: Warzone by nearly 3 years, our client is also actively asserting its senior rights through trademark applications, registrations, and international litigations,” attorneys for Warzone.com’s Ricky Ficker said. “As the merger plan between Microsoft and Activision has been submitted to multiple countries, Microsoft should be aware of the depth and breadth of the dispute surrounding Activision’s reverse infringement of the Warzone trademark.”
There’s some extra time to address this situation, as Microsoft and ABK agreed to extend the merger’s deadline to October 18th following their late-won victory in court and the ongoing regulatory scuffle in the UK.
