by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Back before BlizzCon last year, we heard tell about a trademark filing in Europe for something called “Eye of Azshara.” Indications at the time pointed to it being an expansion for Hearthstone.

Turns out that we were wrong; Blizzard announced Goblins vs. Gnomes as the expansion during the opening ceremonies, which fit all the clues that Team 5 had been leaking out far better anyway. And with the announcement of Overwatch, we were all far too busy with what was in front of us rather than what wasn’t there. Anyone who gave any thought to “Eye of Azshara” likely surmised that it was either fake, or an exceptionally early filing for WoW’s sixth expansion.

The tipster who reported the original filing back in October decided to check up on it again, and he reported his findings in a recent thread over on MMO-Champion. The short version is this: the trademark application doesn’t exist. Not in the system where he found it, and not in any other system he could search. From all indications, the “Eye of Azshara” filing was fake.

Between this and all the confusion with the “Dark Below” and “Corgis Unleashed” filings back in 2013, I’m starting to think that trademark applications aren’t going to be a reliable predictor for upcoming products. People detected Overwatch, and that turned out to be real, but no one had any idea what it was at the time. And even a big release like Goblins vs. Gnomes wasn’t trademarked at all. And it’s been demonstrated that the trademark applications can be spoofed easily to generate an authentic-looking fake application, which is very likely what happened this time.

So when someone reports that a trademark application has just been filed, don’t take it seriously unless there’s some other credible evidence to be had. Clearly there are pranksters out there who are interested in trolling the internet by throwing fake applications out there, even mimicking the timing that Blizzard would use for their legitimate filings. We’ll likely have to offer this reminder in the future, such as in the week leading up to any event Blizzard could be attending or throwing where stuff could conceivably be announced, but it may be a solid rule of thumb going forward to be mindful of the source.