Activision Publishing last week filed a lawsuit seeking to end a trademark dispute over the word “war zone,” PC Gamer reported.
The origins of the dispute go back to last June, when Activision applied for US trademarks in both the term “war zone” and “war zone of Call of Duty”, as they apply to video games and to entertainment products.
Washington-based Warzone.com, which has run a browser-based strategy game called Warzone since 2017 and brought it to mobile platforms, opposed these trademark applications in November. Warzone.com claims that Activision’s trademarks are confusingly similar to theirs and, if allowed to pass, would hinder their own trademark attempts around Warzone, which were made in October.
Activision was initially scheduled to file its response with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before December 12, but has filed and received four extensions within that time. The last deadline to respond to Warzone.com’s opposition is today, but as of this writing there were no files available on the USPTO website.
Although Activision has not yet claimed its side at the USPTO, its lawsuit filed its side of the argument. In it, Activision denied the possibility of consumer confusion, saying the browser game is more like the Risk board game than a first-person shooter like Call of Duty, and noted that the Warzone.com title never has been made available to consoles.
Activision further attacks the defendant’s claims by noting that there are 16 other mobile games with the word “War Zone” in the title, and noting that “the term” War Zone “is a phrase used by many video games and other entertainment products involving military combat. “
They didn’t mention the various games with “Warzone” in the title available alongside Call of Duty Warzone on PC, PlayStation or Xbox.
Activision is seeking a declaratory judgment that it does not infringe any trademark rights of Warzone.com, that its own trademark applications may proceed with registration, and that Warzone.com will be required to pay “reasonable fees and costs.” of Activision’s “lawyer in the case. .