We've reported before on Blizzard suing a company -- Lilith Games -- for copying its World of Warcraft characters. Valve later joined the suit, alleging that its Dota 2 characters were also being copied. 

Now, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer has dismissed the case -- because Blizzard and Valve failed to provide proof necessary to show that their characters are, in fact, copyrightable: "... Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of alleging, with sufficient detail, copyright ownership in the characters," Breyer wrote.

The two companies can amend their complaint and press forward if they choose.

The story is further tangled by the fact that, alongside Lilith Games, Valve and Blizzard were suing another company for the same thing in the same suit: uCool. The irony is that Lilith is in the process of suing uCool for stealing the code for its mobile game, Soul Clash, and cloning it as Heroes Charge. 

That case will move forward, but Lilith faced a setback in September when a judge ruled that uCool could not be prevented from distributing Heroes Charge.