When you're a monolithic game producer, tthe internet is a never ending war of domain complaints, cybersquatting, and so on and so forth, and Blizzard is waging yet another battle in the ongoing skirmish.
The masters behind World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo have filed a complaint with the owner of the web domain "HeroesofWarcraft.com," attempting to acquire the URL for itself.
While this may not seem like an especially valid happening for the future of one of Blizzard's flagship titles, it's important to remember that Warcraft III went into production under the name Heroes of Warcraft before being it was finally released as Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
Taking that fact into consideration, this move by Blizzard is feeding rumor flames that a fourth Warcraft title may be in the works. That, or maybe Blizzard just doesn't want some anonymous third party in control of anything with the Warcraft name on it. More recently, Blizzard acquired the domain WarcraftBattles.com," leading to even more speculation about the title of the next Warcraft game.
According to Fusible, in order for Blizzard to win the dispute, "the company must demonstrate that all of the elements enumerated in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy have been satisfied:
(1) that the disputed domain name registered by the Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights; and
(2) that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name; and
(3) that the disputed domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith
Since the HeroesofWarcraft domainis currently devoid of content, it's an obvious case of cybersquatting, and this is far from the first case of such an action that a game studio has had to deal with.
Last month, a ruling declared Riot Games the new commander over LeagueofLegendsPorn.com. Interestingly enough, the site didn't actually host any pornography. Visitors were only greeted with the phrase of the "future home of something quite cool." And then over the summer, Riot Games again won control of the domain "leagueoflegends.co," which, prior to Riot's lawsuit against the site for trademark infringement, was a redirect to a porn site. Gamers with the unfortunate lack of ability to type in an "m" at the end of a url (it affects more people than you might think, truly a terrible affliction) now no longer have anything to worry about.
More as the story develops.