blizzard-trademark
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Possible Blizzard trademark: "Heroes of the Storm"
A potential new trademark for Blizzard Entertainment has been filed in New Zealand, according to posters over at MMO-Champion. The trademark, Heroes of the Storm, is currently listed as being under examination on the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand's official website. This means that the trademark has not been officially filed as of yet -- and given the back and forth about the legitimacy of the supposed trademark filed for "The Dark Below" that turned out to be a hoax, one should probably keep that in mind when discussing the possible legitimacy of this trademark. However, the trademark is filed for computer game software, and we still haven't heard a peep as to just what the next expansion is going to be. Does Heroes of the Storm sound like the next Warcraft project? Or perhaps an upcoming expansion card set for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft? It certainly doesn't sound like a title for anything Diablo or StarCraft related, and Wrathion's made his fair share of references to fire raining from the sky, which sounds pretty stormy to me. While we don't have a definitive on whether or not this trademark will be approved and filed, it definitely gives us some more food for thought.
Blizzard trademarks "Cute But Deadly"
News of Blizzard trademarks always spells a flurry of speculation on video game websites such as this one, especially when they begin to roll in toward the end of an expansion cycle, like now. Yet somehow I doubt that "Cute But Deadly" is the title that will follow Mists of Pandaria as the next World of Warcraft installation. However, if I happen to be wrong about this, hats off to Blizzard's sirs and mesdames for a superb bit of trolling. Of course this begs the question of just what it might be a trademark for. I could see it as potentially having to do with Hearthstone, or maybe, considering that Blizzard has just announced production of a children's book, something along those lines. Maybe it's just a decoy to throw us all off the scent. Or...it could be a new spin-off miniseries featuring Wrathion and all his adorable, angry dragon friends! No? Uh, well then. Who knows? Certainly not me, but guessing games are fun! Edit: Our commentariat has let it be known that this is the name for the new line of super-deformed merchandise that was announced at the Blizzard SDCC panel. The more you know!
Blizzard files trademark for "Cataclysm"
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Blizzard_files_trademark_for_Cataclysm'; Is "Cataclysm" the name of Blizzard's next-gen MMO? This Tumblr blogger has uncovered trademark applications filed by Blizzard in the fields of computer games, paper-based products, and online entertainment services. Those trademarks are on the USPTO's website, and we can confirm that Rod A. Rigole has been employed by Blizzard as legal counsel previously, so these trademark applications, all filed late last week on June 26th, are all real.Of course, that doesn't confirm that we're actually talking about the next-gen MMO, or that Blizzard is planning on releasing a game called "Cataclysm" at all (StarCraft: Ghost was also trademarked, and we all know what came out of that). It could be another WoW expansion (though you'd think that WoW would be in there somewhere if that was the case), or it could be a completely separate game. Not that we know of one, but Blizzard certainly is working on all kinds of projects that we haven't yet heard about officially.So. "Cataclysm." Trademark Blizzard Entertainment. Keep an eye out for it at BlizzCon this year.Thanks, Ryan!Update: We noticed the domain wowcataclysm.com expired on June 26th, 2009. The domain was previously held and parked out in Australia. June 26th is the same day the trademark was filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office. The domain is also now held by GoDaddy, who we know handles Blizzard domains. That's just a little too much coincidence for us to stay quiet about. It's entirely possible Blizzard just acquired the domain name.
