What’s all this business about the Activision Warzone lawsuit, anyway? It has to do with the trademark “Warzone,” since there was an indie game with that name several years before Call of Duty Warzone even cropped up. The owner/creator of Warzone.com won’t cease attempting to halt Activision’s use of the “Warzone” trademark. Though Warzone.com has been around since 2017, the creator didn’t set up a trademark until Oct. 30. Activision? They got to it back in June 2020.
Hasbro’s Risk inspires Randy “Fizzer” Flicker’s game, and Warzone is the latest Call of Duty battle royale. The purpose of the lawsuit? Allegedly, to have the court reject Fizzer’s “frivolous and irresponsible claims.”
Sticky Business With the Lawsuit
Fizzer, the creator of Warzone.com, claims that Activision shouldn’t have been granted the trademark for Warzone since it confuses their own indie game. The problem lies in that Fizzer didn’t file the trademark before Activision. According to Activision’s Warzone lawsuit, the Warzone owner actively tries to halt the trademark. The counteroffer was rejected at the end of March.
The lawsuit alleges that: “Defendant’s threats of litigation and active efforts to block Activision’s trademark registrations have created an actual and live controversy as to the parties’ respective rights to use or register trademarks that include the word “Warzone.” Because Activision’s use of the “Warzone” title is both protected by the First Amendment and unlikely to cause consumer confusion, Activision is entitled to a declaration that it hasn’t infringed the defendant’s alleged trademark and is entitled to have its pending trademark applications mature to registration. “
Activision’s Call of Duty Warzone is one of the biggest battle royales, not to mention online games right now. As a free-to-play, it’s easy to jump into, even if it does suffer badly from anti-cheat. It sounds like Activision’s recourse is to file a lawsuit over Warzone.
Fizzer originally allegedly sent a cease-and-desist to Activision over the name “Warzone.” He feels that another Warzone game on the scene has caused confusion and is mistaken about the two games. The unfortunate part is that the two games are completely different. Searching Google for “users of Warzone.com” leads to Activision’s Warzone.
The two sides couldn’t come to an amicable resolution, so Activision filed a lawsuit over the use of Warzone.
The Response Is a GoFundMe
Fizzer is the only dev of Warzone.com and can’t hope to compete with Activision and their lawyers’ wallet. With that in mind, a GoFundMe was made to raise $50,000 to fight Activision. According to GoFundMe, the trademark law states that whoever uses a name gets its first rights. He filed his trademark after Activision, but he should still have access to the name by that. However, I’m not a trademark specialist, so I won’t speculate on who is right in this instance.
As of this moment, though, Fizzer has raised $13,000 on his GoFundMe. Activision states that it is “. . .inconceivable that any member of the public could confuse the two products or believe that they are affiliated with or related to each other,” but the developer of Warzone.com disagrees. He points out that people constantly contact him about “his game” not working on their console when referring to Activision’s Warzone.
We will have to stay with this story as it develops. Who is in the right here? Is Activision right for applying for the trademark first, or should it have gone to the first user of the Warzone.com domain/game, Fizzer? We’d love to hear about it on social media!
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Source: https://www.esportstalk.com/news/why-activision-filed-awarzone-trademark-lawsuit-against-an-indie-developer/
