The flurry of actions between Edge Games, its CEO Tim Langdell and Electronic Arts continues with a new entry in the pair’s battle—EA has filed a countersuit against an action brought by Edge earlier this year, which involved the game Mirror’s Edge.
In June, Edge filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against EA, alleging “willful infringement and unfair competition” over the use of the Mirror’s Edge name. This action followed a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation filed by EA in September of 2009 against Edge trademarks, including “The Edge,” “Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.”
Now, according to Industry Gamers, EA’s countersuit claims that the company is “the latest target of Tim Langdell’s decades-long campaign to block anyone from using the word 'edge,' or any variation thereof, in connection with the marketing and sales of video games and related products or services.”
The counter claim calls Langdell a “a one-time designer of video games for such long-since obsolete video game systems as the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Oric, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum,” and alleged that the company obtained trademarks through “fraudulent misrepresentations to the United States Patent and Trademark Office ('USPTO').”
EA’s latest litigation contains language similar to its September 2009 action, claiming that there was “no bona fide use of the mark in commerce,” and argued that even if Edge “ever held a valid registration, they abandoned the mark” due to non-use.
Thanks Andrew!
Comments
Re: EA Returns Volley Against Langdell, Edge Games
I'm so glad that EA are taking him on, he's been a menace preying on smaller devs for years and now it looks like he's finally met someone who is going to push back.
Go EA!
Re: EA Returns Volley Against Langdell, Edge Games
Well, this has the potential to finally put things to rest.
This also has the potential to get actual information out there.... one of the things that has made the various 'Edge' suits difficult to comment on is one is never sure when Langdell is telling the truth, exaggerating, or plain making stuff up.
Here, the success of the counter claim will depend on if these 'lisenced users' exist or not, since if there are unconnected companies actually lisencing the trademark then it is still in use. If they are shells or do not exist at all then it is not.
It gets trickier if one tries to address the claims that they are 'developing' games for newer systems. Holding on to a trademark does not require active products (since companies can apply for trademarks for products still in development), but if they can show that none of his projects are real then they might have a case.
Re: EA Returns Volley Against Langdell, Edge Games
Better check ChaosEdge (http://chaosedge.wordpress.com/). The got a lot of articles looking at Langdell's tactics and plenty of evidence that Langdell is nothing but a good old con artist.
They may have published a few games lately (VERY few), but they apparently haven't developped one since they were Softkey (and that was more than 20 years ago). Mirrors (a new game from EDGE) doesn't count since there is no actual evidence that it is actually being made (not mentioned in a single article on the Internet or the press before the lawsuit, not a single piece of information about the game itself anywhere including the official website). All the artwork that has been shown (for Mirrors, at least) were stolen which is a bit suspicious for a game that's supposedly in developpement since 2007.
Re: EA Returns Volley Against Langdell, Edge Games
So, "Edge Games", who is developing a game called '"Mirrors", is upset at EA for naming one of their games "Mirrors Edge"?
If irony were strawberries, we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now.