Activision files complaint over Warzone trademark dispute

Activision has filed a complaint this week in a California district court to end a dispute over the “Warzone” trademark.

The creator of a browser game, that is barely known, called Warzone.com apparently filed a trademark dispute against Activision for using “Warzone” as the name for their Call of Duty Battle Royale experience.

Fizzer, the creator of a browser game called Warzone, claims Activision should not be granted the trademark for Warzone because it has caused confusion over their own game. The dispute began in June 2020, when Activision filed a trademark for “Warzone” and “Call of Duty Warzone,” as first reported by PC Gamer.

In a lawsuit filed by Activision on April 8, 2021, Activision says that they are seeking declaratory relief because Warzone.com’s owners won’t stop attempting to halt their trademark usage of ‘Warzone.’ The lawsuit also says that Warzone.com’s owners stopped negotiating after declining the company’s counter offer sent at the end of March.

Activision also says they first filed trademark for Warzone in June 2020, with the browser game company only filing for the trademark in October 30, 2020. The browser based game has been available since 2017, but the company behind the game never filed a trademark for it until Activision’s Warzone became popular.

“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 has not infringed Defendant’s alleged trademark and is entitled to have its pending trademark applications mature to registration.“

In the trademark filing in October 2020, the Warzone.com owner claimed that Activision’s trademark of Warzone “has already and will continue to result in the relevant consuming public being confused, mistaken or deceived” despite the fact that not many people have heard of the .com game.

Activision’s lawyers went off against the company in their latest filing stating that no one could compare Call of Duty Warzone to their “low budget” browser based game.

Activision’s filing says, “Call of Duty: Warzone could not be more different from Defendant’s game, a low-budget, niche virtual board game like Hasbro’s Risk. 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.”

Call of Duty: Warzone and Warzone have both been filed by Activision as “live” trademarks per the US Patent & Trademark’s office website. The two were registered on June 20, 2020 and are waiting to go live, per Activision’s new lawsuit.