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The story of Tim Langdell and Edge


lazygecko
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http://cultofmac.com/edge-for-iphone-controversy-rumbles-on-game-again-pulled-from-app-store/13115

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-edge-of-reason

Recently the popular iPhone indie game Edge was pulled away due to a lawsuit from Tim Langdell of Edge Games. This guy was previously a relatively obscure figure but the event sparked some interest in his history in the industry. Turns out that around the early 90's, he switched focus from developing games to suing anyone using the word edge in their titles.

Edge Games has not released any game since 1994 and has supposedly staid afloat purely from lawsuits and forcing people into licensing fees. He's the reason Soul Edge was renamed to Soul Blade/Calibur outside Japan for example.

The devs for the iPhone Edge suggested renaming it to Edgy, promptly after that Tim decided to trademark Edgy as well. Sounds like a great guy, huh?

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ROFL. A friend of mine was just telling me about this guy two weeks ago, and about how he is somehow on the board of directors for the IGDA despite not actually producing anything. I've heard they're going to vote him off. During the conversation I had even guessed that "Soul Edge" was renamed because of him, but didn't know the truth. Wow.

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Well, outside of the guy being a litigious douche, some of the blame goes to the game companies, because imo they clearly would have won any trademark infringement cases, hands down, as the name of a corporation is quite different from the name of an actual work/product. Instead, they most likely settled or decided on name changes to avoid the situation entirely... which, while understandable from a purely fiscal perspective, ends up encouraging this type of asinine behavior and fueling misconceptions of trademark law and applicability...

As a sidenote, someone really needs to create an indie game called "Edgy Edge McEdgealot and the Edgtastical Edgefest"; also, Soul Edge may be the most famous renamed game, but look at these other victims that ended up being renamed:

- Princess Tomato in the EDGE

- Snacks'n EDGE

- I Have No EDGE and I Must Scream

- Super 3D Noah's EDGE

- Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD EDGE

- Edge (renamed to "Plok")

... tragic.

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No. He knows that he doesn't have the legal firepower to take on Nintendo.

Hold on, hold on. I think he's on to something there.

I have this image now of Langdell confronting and filing a lawsuit against the actual character of Miles Edgeworth. The lawyer. I'd like to see that happen.

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Looks like they decided to bite back instead of settling.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/698176/Edge-And-The-Forever-Deepening-Trademark-Rabbit-Hole.html

As of right now, Mobigames has enlisted legal help to settle the Edge dispute. The conclusion of the suit could have vast implications for Edge Games, as Mobigames is seeking to have Edge Games abandon its monopoly over the Edge trademark in North America. Edge Games has reportedly told Mobigames it has abandoned its application for the Edgy trademark and would hand it over to Mobigames at no cost.
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http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?threadid=35923&perpage=15&highlight=&pagenumber=1

Members of the IGDA are now calling for the removal of Tim Langdell from his position in the IGDA.

It's getting really interesting.

Ok basically the title says it all.

In the absence of any ability to create a poll, I can only ask that you add your yes/no to this list

Just in case you have been living in a cave for the last month or 2.

Tim has become embroiled in a rather nasty bit of predatory Trademark trolling where he has tried to force a settlement out of independent games developer Mobigames because he has a trademark on the word EDGE and their game was/is called Edge.

Research has shown that this is a standard MO for Dr Langdell and as such its quite clear that he does not really have developers interests at heart when in fact he's attempting to force developers to pay him a % for the fruits of their labor due to his underhand albeit legal shenanigans.

The internet is buzzing with accusations and counter accusations, claims and counter claims, including several replys from Tim himself, but the facts are fairly clear that he has been a prime motivator in causing Mobigames to remove their game from sale until the matter can be resolved.

A resolution I add which Tim has made markedly harder by sneakily registering the word "EDGY" after Mobigames offered to rename their title to that.

I contend these are not actions which have the interests of the development community at heart, however legal they may be. And that as a result Tim is failing IGDA and causing harm to IGDA's public reputation.

I have asked in another thread that Tim Landell step down from his position on the board due to the extraordinary bad press his behavior is casting not only on him but on the IGDA itself.

But so far he has not responded to that call.

I will repeat that request and ask that others join me. Perhaps if the membership is actually willing to make its voice heard, we can make this happen for the benefit of IGDA.

for those who need to research further

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Adam...l__the_IGDA.php

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6456.0

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Step...t_the_Board.php

Or just google Tim Langdell and Edge.

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His website also posts that he has 756 games listed as releases - and while this is technically true, its basically the same games listed over and over in all the many platforms and translations - it technically counts but c'mon we weren't born yesterday.

If only we could do to this guy what we did to Ebaum's World......

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