"Hello, my name is Randy." "I am being sued by Activision for being an indie game developer." This is the beginning of a GoFundMe page for Randy Ficker, creator of a browser and mobile game called Warzone. Ficker and Activision are involved in a trademark dispute over the name Warzone as it applies to video games, and things are heating up.

Ficker launched Warzone in 2017. Activision launched Call of Duty: Warzone in 2020. As Ficker stated on GoFundMe, "The law is clear." If you use a name in commerce before someone else, they cannot sue you to get the rights to that name.

On the other hand, Activision's complaint states that while "Call of Duty Warzone" is not available on mobile devices, "Defendants' 'Warzone' is available as a browser-based game on the Internet or on mobile distribution platforms, 'Warzone' and is one of a number of games titled "Warzone" available on the Internet as a browser-based game or on mobile distribution platforms. It then cites 16 examples. However, all of those simply called "Warzone" appear to be later than Ficker's game, and those released earlier, such as "Anomaly: Warzone Earth," which was released in 2011, use variations of the name. Ficker may be the first to simply call it "Warzone."

(Incidentally, "Anomaly: Warzone Earth" was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, in both PC and mobile versions. I genuinely like the fact).

Activision's complaint makes a big deal about the fact that Ficker's Warzone is available on mobile devices and browsers, just to prove that no one can mistake the two. Call of Duty: Warzone could not be more different from Respondent's game, a low-budget, niche virtual board game like Hasbro's Risk," Activision's counsel said, in an honestly sort of snarky way, "and we cannot allow the public to confuse these two products or believe that the two are affiliated or related."

Fickers disputes this. As evidence, he offers the Twitch category he created for Warzone: past the 25 people streaming Call of Duty: Warzone and the one Fortnite streamer, streaming the game this category is supposed to be about I had to scroll down to find the player streaming the game this category is supposed to be about. (Hello, Biopilot17.) "Regular streamers of my game are frustrated by this," Ficker wrote.11]

Ficker has also received calls from Call of Duty players who "can't connect their xbox, their PS4 has been hacked, their teammates I wish I could carry" and that "Activision's actions buried us, even though our name was the #1 search result on Google and the App Store."

Ficker also mentioned that he had received calls from players who had "been hacked by the hackers,"

and that "the hackers were not able to connect their xboxes to the PS4.

And that is why he is raising money to fight the publisher in court, promising that "100% of the money raised in this GoFundMe will be used directly in our legal battle with Activision." Currently, 431 people have donated and Ficker has raised $12,094 of the $50,000 goal.