After attracting over a million players to his game, “Warlight,” and with the impending demise of Adobe Flash in 2014, solo indie video game developer Randy Ficker decided it was time to make a sequel. A pragmatist, he began searching for available domain names and titles that would embody the turn-based, strategy game, which is very similar to the board game Risk and playable on Web browsers and mobile platforms. Finally, one emerged: “Warzone.”
“’Warzone’ was the only one for sale,” Ficker, 39, told The Washington Post.
Fast forward to 2020. In his email, a Google Alert informed Ficker that video game publishing behemoth Activision was about to release a free-to-play battle royale version of its juggernaut Call of Duty franchise. The name: “Warzone.”
“I didn’t understand the significance of it at first,” Ficker said. “I’ve never had any trademark disputes before. … I’m just a game developer. It didn’t really bother me until I found out they [filed] the trademark for ‘Warzone,’ so I contacted a trademark lawyer.”
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“’Warzone’ was the only one for sale,” Ficker, 39, told The Washington Post.
Fast forward to 2020. In his email, a Google Alert informed Ficker that video game publishing behemoth Activision was about to release a free-to-play battle royale version of its juggernaut Call of Duty franchise. The name: “Warzone.”
“I didn’t understand the significance of it at first,” Ficker said. “I’ve never had any trademark disputes before. … I’m just a game developer. It didn’t really bother me until I found out they [filed] the trademark for ‘Warzone,’ so I contacted a trademark lawyer.”
read more (washingtonpost) / alt source (svg)
