If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, why isn't Electronic Arts blushing at the compliments inadvertently (or on purpose) bestowed upon them by Energy Armor? Because lawsuits take care of these sorts of things in corporate America, of course. Electronic Arts has sued Energy Armor, who do business using the same initials and because their logo looks suspiciously like EA's.

We all know that Bethesda parent company Zenimax and Minecraft maker Mojang are headed to court to settle a trademark dispute over the term "Scrolls," but -- according to Markus 'Notch' Persson -- the whole ordeal could have been avoided. As you already know, Minecraft maker Mojang received a letter from Bethesda's lawyers asking them to "cease and desist" using the term "Scrolls" because it infringed on its "Elder Scrolls" trademark and would cause brand confusion.

Did you know Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins (Tycho) is writing the backstory to Mojang’s Scrolls?

Well, he is and he’s well aware of Bethesda’s trademark infringement claim.

“Bethesda is uncomfortable with how scrolly they’re getting over there with all the scroll scrolls.  Bethsoft has the Elder Scrolls, which are much, much older in the scroll department, and they believe that the age of these scrolls grants them primacy.

GamerLaw has an in-depth analysis of the Scrolls v. Elder Scrolls situation that was made public last week by Indie developer Mojang - better known as the makers of Minecraft.

A slight misstep by either developer Double Fine or Microsoft over trademarks has caused the popular game Trenched to be unavailable in certain parts of Europe. According to Destructoid report (citing Eurogamer) a Portuguese board game called Trench holds the rights to the name.

A man named Rui Alípio Monteiro filed the trademark in 2007, which covers both board games and videogames. Basically that means that either the name has to be changed or someone has to cut a deal with Monteiro for the game to have any chance of release across all over Europe.

Both Microsoft and Monteiro are not commenting on the situation. Hopefully Double Fine simply changes the name so Europe can enjoy this great game.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who filed a lawsuit against multiple technology companies for alleged patent infringements, has met defeat at the hands of a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington (Seattle). U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman called the allegations of the suit "spartan" and dismissed the case. Allen and his attorneys have until December 28 to re-file the case, which they have every intention of doing. Allen's lawyers called the judge's ruling a "procedural issue."

The lawsuit filed by Allen's firm Interval Licensing alleged that Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples violated patents that Allen secured while at the helm of Interval Research. That company may no longer be in business, but the patents live on.

The patents cover "fundamental web technologies." The patents in question are No. 6,263,507; No. 6,034,652; No. 6,788,314; and No. 6,757,682.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship filed a lawsuit on Thursday against publisher Ubisoft, claiming that the packaging for its new Kinect fighting game, Fighters Uncaged, infringes on the trademarks of the UFC. Attorneys (Lewis and Roca LLP) for UFC parent company Zuffa LLC charged that the phrase on the back-cover of the new Ubisoft game for the Xbox 360 is an infringement of its trademark.

The offending phrase is "Become the ULTIMATE FIGHTING weapon!"

Zuffa's lawyers claim that the phrase is nearly identical to the UFC’s trademarked Ultimate Fighting name. It may also confuse consumers who are looking for the company's games like the "Undisputed" series published by THQ and the "Sudden Impact" game.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking the sale of the game, removal of the infringing phrase from the game's packaging, unspecified damages, and court costs.

Mobigame, sees an opening and it may take it. At least that's what one of the many companies targeted by Edge Games over the use of the word "Edge" says. The developer who created a game for the iPhone called "Edge," tells Eurogamer that it may seek legal action against Tim Langdell and his company.

"It is not over yet," Mobigame CEO David Papazian told Eurogamer.net. "Now we will continue to support EA in the battle against Tim Langdell. The next step is to have all his trademarks cancelled by the USPTO."

"After that he will not be able to damage anyone, he added."

"We are still thinking to start a legal action against Langdell to claim a reparation for the prejudice," Papazian claimed.

Edge Games, Inc. and Dr. Tim Langdell are having some serious setbacks today. William Alsup, the U.S. District Court judge (Northern District of California) that presided over the EA lawsuit, has ordered that depositions be taken related to allegations of fraud that were brought up by EA. Here's the entire text of the order (PDF):

"To ensure fairness to both sides, defendant Electronic Arts, Inc. shall make available for depositions next week any declarants — including counsel — whose sworn statements were relied upon to support its allegations of fraud on the United States Patent and Trademark Office by plaintiff Edge Games, Inc. and Dr. Tim Langdell. As with Dr. Langdell’s deposition this week, these depositions would be limited to the alleged misrepresentations made to the USPTO regarding the asserted marks herein."

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.”

Following threats from the city of San Francisco earlier this week over an “illegal and actionable” Mafia Wars II marketing stunt which littered the streets of that city, a bad stretch continues to get worse for social game maker Zynga.

Venture Beat reports that Zynga is now the target of a trademark suit from mobile game developer Digital Chocolate. The Trip Hawkins-helmed company claims that it owns the exclusive rights to the name Mafia Wars and that it notified Zynga of the infringement last year, after which it was informed by Zynga that it would stop using the name.

Zynga, responding to the lawsuit, stated, “We are surprised and disappointed by Digital Chocolate’s lawsuit. The timing of the action appears to be opportunistic, and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously.”

Digital Chocolate used the Mafia Wars name for a mobile game, which VB writes, “wasn’t very popular.

Tim Langdell and Edge Games are at it again, launching another lawsuit, this time claiming trademark infringement against videogame giant Electronic Arts.

The lawsuit revolves around what Edge terms “willful infringement and unfair competition” in regards to EA’s Mirror’s Edge franchise. The suit seeks a court injunction against EA’s “continued infringement” and includes claims for treble damages.

From a press release announcing the lawsuit:

…Edge Games sent a cease-and-desist letter in July 2007 after learning of EA’s intentions to launch Mirror’s Edge. Rather than responding to the letter, the lawsuit states, EA instead filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in an attempt to register the Mirror’s Edge name. The USPTO denied the application in early 2008, stating that EA’s planned use of Mirror’s Edge would likely cause confusion with several registered trademarks maintained by Edge Games.

Things have been quite on the Tim Langdell and Edge Games front following a litigious end to 2009.

Langdell and Edge Games have been furiously, some say overzealously, battling against alleged trademark infringements involving the term “Edge,” targeting Mobigame’s iPhone game entitled Edge (now named Edgy).

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts also entered the fray last September, filing a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation against a series of Edge Games trademarks, including “The Edge,” Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.” EA claimed that Edge Games did not actually use trademarks like “The Edge” in commerce. EA also said that Edge Games had continually threatened to sue it over the EA Dice-developed game Mirror’s Edge.

While his opponents may have wish he had fled, as previously reported, Edge Games CEO Tim Langdell is back in the news and stirring up more trademark trouble.

Develop notes Langdell’s return and the subsequent removal of Mobigame’s Edge by Mobigame iPhone game from the iTunes Store for the second time. Langdell and Edge Games were not impressed with Mobigame appending their name to the name of the game, telling Develop, “Clearly, if Sony tried to use the mark ‘iPod by Sony’ they would hardly expect Apple not to take action to protect their mark ‘iPod’. In trademark law adding ‘by (name)’ to another company's registered trademark does not mean a company can use that trademark without being guilty of willful infringement.”

An Edge Games statement claimed that Mobigames has had an offer since May to change the name of the game in question, with no money exchanging hands, an offer that was "repeatedly refused."

In September of this year, Electronic Arts turned the tables and targeted Langdell and Edge Games with a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation over a series of trademarks registered to Edge Games, including “The Edge,” Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.”

An Edge Games rep (or Langdell himself) told Develop that Edge has filed a petition to dismiss EA’s action, adding, “Despite rumors to the contrary, Edge Games has either won every dispute in the past 20 years over the mark Edge or has settled amicably with the other party ending the dispute with an agreement in Edge Games' favor.”

The Mobigames title in question reappeared in the iTunes store this morning (for the U.S. and U.K. territories), under the new moniker Edgy.

The creator of Second Life in Education, a wiki designed to document the educational uses of the online world, has received notice from developer Linden Labs that the site infringes on their trademark.

The website has been in operation since 2006. While Jokay Wollongong wrote on her blog that the notice came as “a kick in the guts,” the site’s founder said that she would not fight the request and would move the resources of her wiki to another domain. She also wrote:

I also worry that this is a sign of things to come for many other residents who are creating fantastic content.

Massively notes that one of the infringements in question centered on Linden Lab’s SL trademark, which they only registered within the past two weeks.

Aggressive trademark defender Tim Langdell has found his company on the receiving end of an Electronic Arts trademark battle.

Langdell, the CEO of Edge Games Inc., has been notorious for his attempts to stop the use of the word “edge” by other game developers in their titles. As a result of what some might term his overzealousness, a petition was started earlier this year to have Langdell removed from his spot on the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) board, a post he eventually resigned from in August.

DowJones reports that Electronic Arts Inc., and its subsidiary EA Digital Illusions CE AB, have filed a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation against a series of trademarks registered to Edge Games, including: “The Edge,” Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.”

At the center of the fight is the EA-published and EA DICE-developed Mirror’s Edge game. EA claims that Edge Games has continuously threatened to sue EA over the game’s title, even though EA DICE owns U.S. common law trademark rights to the term Mirror’s Edge.

One of EA’s arguments is that Edge Games did not utilize “The Edge” trademark in commerce, a statement it attempted to backup with a graphic showing a Snoopy computer game (pictured left), complete with “The Edge” labeling. EA noted that the game was for the Commodore Amiga platform, a system that “on information and belief, was discontinued years before the filing of the application.” The application was filed "on or about" March 22, 1996.

For those interested, TIGSource has been keeping a running tally of information related to Tim Langdell and Edge Games.

Notorious bank robber John Dillinger was gunned down by FBI agents in 1934, but his fame lives on. And that is causing some problems for game publisher Electronic Arts.

EA has filed suit in federal court in San Francisco, requesting that a U.S. District Court judge grant them the okay to use the name "Dillinger" in association with a pair of virtual machine guns depicted in its Godfather games. The "Dillinger Tommy Gun" appears in the original Godfather game, while the "Modern Dillinger" is featured in The Godfather II.

The publisher has taken the unusual step because the owner of Indiana-based Dillinger LLC, reportedly the grandson of the famous gangster's half-sister, lays claim to all things Dillinger, including his name and likeness.

The lawsuit, filed by attorneys for the publisher last week, claims that Dillinger LLC tried to commit a bit of strongarm robbery on EA recently:

On July 22, 2009 Dillinger LLC, through its litigation counsel, contacted EA to accuse it of violating Dillinger's right of publicity and infringing upon its trademarks. Dillinger threatened EA with litigation unless it agreed to pay Dillinger millions of dollars for the game elements...

 

Following Dillinger's recent conduct, EA is faced with the choice of either abandoning its rights to develop, publish and sell the works at issue or risk liability for damages.

The EA case is not the first time Dillinger LLC has gotten legalistic over the use of the Dillinger monicker. The Arizona Star reports that in 2007 Dillinger LLC claimed its permission was needed for local hotel to run a "Dillinger Days" event. As the newspaper explains, an Indiana law has apparently emboldened Dillinger LLC:

The hotel is being sued under an Indiana law that protects a person's personality for 100 years after his or her death. It works like a trademark, because a person who wants to profit from the use of the personality must obtain written permission. Arizona has no such law, and it's not clear whether the Indiana law applies here.

DOCUMENT DUMP: Grab a copy of EA's lawsuit here...

After months of controversy, Tim Langdell has resigned from the executive board of the International Game Developers Association, reports Develop.

Langdell, accused by some of being an abuser of the trademark process, explained his reasons for stepping down in a post on the IGDA's forum:

My great fear, then, is that this vocal minority [of critics] -- most of whom are not IGDA members -- will continue their negative attacks on the IGDA... It seems nearly certain they will continue to generate even more negative press for the IGDA... causing substantial drain on IGDA board volunteer and staff resources and time, which is not in the interests of either the IGDA or its membership...

I make this decision not because I have done anything wrong... but because I must make this decision between concluding a process that will show I did no wrong, and having that process irreparably damage the IGDA, I cannot permit the latter to happen...

The Tim Langdell saga continues...

By now, most readers are familiar with the controversy surrounding IGDA board member Tim Langdell, considered by many to be an abuser of the trademark process.

Perhaps the most frequently-heard complaint against Langdell is that in May of this year he persuaded Apple to remove the best-selling iPhone game EDGE from the App Store by claiming that the MobiGames title violated his trademark on the word "edge."

In the interim a movement to oust him from the IGDA board has taken hold, with more than 2,000 members of the group signing a petition to that effect.

Langdell has now fired back, disputing various allegations in an open letter to MobiGames and posting the text of various e-mails.

Pocket Gamer UK, however, has news of a response from MobiGames. There is a good deal of finger-pointing from both sides and it sounds as if this one will need to be worked out before a judge.

Partially Via: Kotaku

Recently, GamePolitics reported on the availability of Barack and Michelle Obama avatars for use in Second Life.

But it seems that those virtual depictions of the President and the First Lady are destined to have short careers.

New World Notes reports that, beginning next month, SL publisher Linden Lab will implement strict new rules on the sale of real-world products and brands - including depictions of actual celebrities. Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie avatars are specifically referenced as examples of prohibited content in the new Linden Lab guidelines.

Readers may recall that stun gun manufacturer TASER, Inc. brought a trademark lawsuit against Linden earlier this year over virtual copies of its weapon which were being sold by third-party content creators for use in Second Life. The suit was later dropped, but the new SL guidelines are almost certainly a response to such legal concerns.

As New World Notes mentions, enforcing the new policy may be problematic for Linden Lab:

While I'm not a lawyer, I would think avatar imitations of celebrities, especially political figures, would fall under the parody safe harbor of fair use. In the real world, you can still buy an unauthorized Barack Obama mask for Halloween. Not so in Second Life very soon...

 

The biggest challenge to this policy, in any case, is likely to be the SL content creation community itself, who often do reference the real world in their works, but are still proprietary about their products.

The Tim Langdell saga continues...

Develop reports that a petition to remove the controversial Langdell from the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association has garnered far beyond the 1,200 signatures required by the organization's by-laws. More than 2,000 IGDA members reportedly signed the petition against Langdell, who is regarded by many as a "trademark troll" - an abuser of the trademark process. The vote should trigger a special meeting at which members could vote to remove Langdell from the IGDA board.

IGDA member Corvus Elrod, who devised the petition, told Develop:

It's true, we've got the signatures we need. But now the hard work really begins, as we convince the board to take it seriously and the entire membership to take a stand and vote.

Meanwhile, The Escapist recounts an e-mail flap involving the ongoing Langdell situation. While new IGDA Executive Director Joshua Caulfield disavowed an e-mail circulated to members this week calling for Langdell's removal, Orbus Gameworks President Darius Kazemi believes the messages are legitimate:

[Kazemi] believes a group of people opposed to Langdell's presence on the Board of Directors simply divided the member list between them and used those contact forms to send the message.

"Nobody obtained email addresses through dubious means," he wrote. "It's like sending a message via Facebook messaging... These messages were not sent in an unethical or illegal way. If anything, the messages are a consequence of the rather poor state of the current IGDA website."

To view the e-mail, click here.

TASER International has - at least for now - dropped a trademark infringement suit against Linden Lab, which operates Second Life.

As GamePolitics reported in April, the maker of the controversial stun guns, filed suit after it discovered virtual TASER replica items being sold in Second Life as gear for SL avatars (see pic at left).TASER also alleged that its brand would be damaged via association with virtual sex and virtual drug use occuring within Second Life.

Virtual World News reports:

Taser filed a Notice of Voluntary Case Dismissal... and adds that because Linden never filed an answer to the original complaint, the dismissal is "without prejudice" -- meaning Taser could choose to refile at a later date.

The recent controversy brewing around the aggressive trademark defense tactics of game developer Tim Langdell has sparked a petition to remove him from the executive board of the International Game Developers Association.

GamesLaw reports that game writer Corvus Elrod is the creator of the online petition. Elrod hopes to obtain signatures from at least 10% of the organization's members. If so, he will present the petition to the board "and force them to call a special meeting of the membership to vote on Tim Langdell’s removal."

Dan Rosenthal, editor of GamesLaw, comments on the increasingly unpleasant situation:

This is obviously a huge issue, especially for a very troubled IGDA. There have been recent questions in mainstream blogs and those of several high profile industry members questioning what exactly IGDA is providing to its members. The trademark issue further fans the flames of allegations that IGDA isn’t doing enough, and it’s being talked about by key industry figures...

Rosenthal mentions that he hopes to discuss the Langdell/IGDA situation at his Legal Issues in Gaming panel at the upcoming PAX 2009.