As Raven Software prepares to introduce a brand-new map into Warzone, the publisher of the battle royale, Activision, has filed a lawsuit against the developers of a turn-based strategy game also known as Warzone.
The strategy game was released in 2017, three years prior to the release of Call of Duty's Warzone which has since taken the battle royale genre by storm with tens of millions of players downloading the game since its launch.
The lawsuit issued from the multi-billion dollar publisher states that Activision's use of Warzone and Call of Duty: Warzone don't infringe on any trademarks that relate to the strategy game.
The legal battle has rambled on since June 2020 and Activision's most recent lawsuit is the latest chapter in the story. Here's everything you need to know.
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Warzone vs Warzone: The Story So Far
The battle between Warzone and Activison began in October 2020 when the developer of the strategy game attempted to register Warzone as a trademark after Activision had attempted to do so in June.
Randy Ficker, developer of the Warzone strategy game, and their lawyer sent the publisher a cease and desist letter in November which told Activision to change the name of the battle royale and to abandon any attempts of trademarking the Warzone name.
In February 2021, a letter from Activision disputed the above claim which eventually led to Ficker's lawyer threatening to take legal action alongside demanding an undisclosed financial settlement. Activision responded with another proposal but was rejected on April 5th.
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What's Next?
According to Activision's latest lawsuit, the publisher states that "Call of Duty: Warzone could not be more different from Defendant's game, a low-budget, niche board game" before going on to say that "it is inconceivable that any member of the public could confuse the two products."
Ficker countered this claim, releasing a statement that says that "people tell me all about how their Xbox can't connect" to Warzone's servers despite the strategy game being on PC, meaning that players are getting confused between the two, countering Activision's latest argument.
With the Court yet to make a decision on Activision's lawsuit, Ficker has launched a GoFundMe page to pay for the legal fees. Will the Warzone strategy game manage to take down the publishing giant of Activision?
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