Overwatch It Is, Once and for All

by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

For those of you who weren’t aware, Blizzard was involved in a minor legal spat with another company regarding the name of their upcoming FPS shooter Overwatch.

In September of 2013 a company called Innovis Labs filed for a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office on the name Overwatch to be used with a “paintball related mobile app”. On April 1st 2014 Blizzard filed for the same name. Blizzard’s application was suspended as there was already a product with that name.

In March 2015, Blizzard and Innovis worked together to resolve the issue by signing a co-existence agreement where each company would keep their product from being confused with the other. A short time later (May 2015) Innovis sued Blizzard claiming that the agreement was not sufficient to prevent confusion and Blizzard’s trademark was once again suspended.

News was released today that a final settlement has been reached in the case. The details of the case are confidential but according to The McArthur Law Firm (a well-known firm specializing in Intellectual Property and video games in particular) speculates that the settlement included a significant amount of money paid to Innovis by Blizzard to obtain full rights to the Overwatch name.

The details may come out at a later time but for now we can all rest easy knowing that the name of the hotly anticipated shooter won’t receive a sudden name change any time soon.