14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that Blizzard has run into some troubles with its trademark for Overwatch, the recently announced team-based multiplayer shooter.
According to a discussion on NeoGAF, the two trademark applications that the company filed back in April 2014 have just been suspended, due to a trademark on the same name filed some time prior to Blizzard’s.
Innovis Labs Inc.’s trademark filing for Overwatch supersedes Blizzard’s applications, which might mean that the company could be forced to change the name of its upcoming video game.
The notes uncovered on the forums point to the United States Patent and Trademark Office suspending both of Blizzard’s applications, pending either the allowance or abandonment of Innovis Labs Inc.’s prior application.
For the time being, Blizzard is yet to make a move on the matter, but if things don’t work out right, the company might end up having to give the multiplayer shooter a different name.
A new and exciting game from Blizzard
Overwatch was announced during last year’s BlizzCon, the convention the company uses for revealing its future plans.
The team-based shooter is designed to offer players an action-packed and strategic experience, coming with a bunch of different characters to use, each of which possesses interesting abilities and play specific roles during matches.
The game is scheduled to move into beta testing sometime later this year, following a development process similar to Blizzard’s other recent games, the highly popular collectible card game Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, the company’s spin on the multiplayer online battle arena genre.
For the time being, the studio has not revealed what type of business model it plans to use for Overwatch, but given the success of Hearthstone and the free-to-play design of Heroes of the Storm, it’s most likely going to follow a similar route.
Innovis Labs’s creation is a companion app for paintball, airsoft and laser tag enthusiasts, meant to enhance their combat simulation experience with some video game mechanics such as maps, radars, and various perks that users can deploy during clashes.
