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ZackieChan · Nov 2, 2015

In a previous thread, Gaffer Rösti described some of the issues that Blizzard was having with registering the federal trademark for Overwatch. This was due to another company, Innovis Labs, already having registered and used the mark.

A game attorney colleague of mine, Stephen McArthur, uncovered a court document showing that Blizzard and Innovis have now settled their pending lawsuit. Additionally, it looks like Innovis has surrendered their trademark for Overwatch that was conflicting with Blizzard. Most likely, the earlier suspension of Blizzard's registration will be lifted and they'll get their trademark.

From the post:

The parties have now settled

According to a recent court filing, Blizzard and Innovis Labs settled the litigation and they are in the process of dismissing the lawsuit. On October 21, Innovis filed to surrender its registered Overwatch trademark. With that, the USPTO will likely lift its suspension of Blizzards application and move forward with registering its rights to the trademark. While we will probably never know the details of the confidential settlement, it is safe to assume that Blizzard paid Innovis a hefty sum for it to outright abandon its rights to Overwatch.

Things are certainly looking much better for Blizzards Overwatch, which just had a beta release on October 27.

I'll be watching this one closely!

Smooth Operator · Nov 2, 2015

Oh okay, that's why i'm still not invited to the beta ! ... Right ?

On a more serious note, i'd really like to know how much they paid, but i guess we'll never know.

CountAntonius · Nov 2, 2015

So will CSGO need to change the name of their anti cheat initiative?

Dr. Buni · Nov 2, 2015

I came expecting a post about someone not getting in the beta (like me) and I wasn't disappointed.

weevles · Nov 2, 2015

I suspected that the name was already registered and was not surprised to see something like this. Overwatch seems like an obvious title for an FPS.

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Blizzard settles dispute over Overwatch trademark

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