EA Throws Legal Counterpunch at Langdell's Edge

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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EA Throws Legal Counterpunch at Langdell's Edge


Electronic Arts [http://www.ea.com] has filed a counter-suit against Edge man Tim Langdell, accusing him of "fraudulently misrepresenting" himself and his company to the USPTO so that he can keep suing the pants off of everything he sees.

Tim Langdell's shenanigans over the years have been well-documented. As the president of Edge Games he has enthusiastically ladled out legal threats against any and all use of the Edge name, regardless of context, without his permission. The declared void [http://www.edgegames.com/].

But even when faced with the might and enormity of the EA legal department, Langdell refused to back down. In fact, his response seemed to invite even closer scrutiny of the validity of his claims: He Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101386-Edge-Games-Sues-EA-Over-Mirrors-Edge]. Now, unsurprisingly, EA has fired back, filing a strongly-worded counter-suit that once again seeks to have Edge's various trademarks declared void.

"Through a series of fraudulent misrepresentations to the United States Patent and Trademark Office ('USPTO'), Langdell - a one-time designer of videogames for such long-since obsolete videogame systems as the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Oric, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum - has obtained federal registrations for a purported 'family' of Edge marks," the suit says. "Neither Langdell nor his alter ego companies have made any legitimate and good faith use of those marks in commerce, but they have instead used the marks to assert baseless claims against third parties and to extract undeserved settlements, consisting of invalid naked licenses and assignments in gross which Langdell has used to maintain his fraudulently obtained registrations.

"To the extent Counterdefendants ever held a valid registration, they abandoned the mark ... due to non-use of the mark with the intent not to resume use, through an assignment in gross of the application and underlying trademark, and otherwise through a course of conduct that has caused the mark to lose all significance as a mark and/or as an indicator of source," it continues.

EA is seeking the cancellation of the trademark registrations held by Edge Games and "a declaration that [Langdell's] companies have no common law rights in the purported marks that are the subject of those registrations," along with legal fees and whatever other awards the court "deems just and proper." Adding to the drama is the fact that Mirror's Edge 2 is already in the works [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/92366-Mirrors-Edge-2-in-the-Works], further trampling Langdell's (for the moment) trademarks. Stay tuned!

Source: IndustryGamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ea-fires-back-at-edge-games-says-its-deceiving-uspto/]


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Quiet Stranger

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Scrumpmonkey said:
I've been monitoring the Tim Langdell situation for a while now and scincerly hope he gets the legal *****-slap he has been deserving of for nearly a decade now. The man hasn't actually been involved in making, publishing, distributing or backing a single solitary game since the early 1990s yet someone has the balls to call himself the head of a game development studio known as "Edge games".

Langdell has proceeded to sue everyone in sight over the use of the term 'edge' whist deliberatly attempting to casue confusion between his own (imaginary) products and legit games like Mirrors edge. Between his samefull trademark squatting and lawsuit trolling Langdell finds the time to send imflamitory e-mails to indie developers and generally make a massive swinging dick of himself.

End the thread now, this man summed everything up.

OT: Tim Langdell is a fucking asshole
 

Jared

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Well, lets hope it goes well - Finally end this sad, sad chapter
 

BboyTeddyBear

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i've had a bit of ill relation with EA the mega publisher, but this finally puts EA back into the good light. Go ea!

(judges should read online forums about what they think about Langdell and maybe they'll see that he doesn't contribute at all to the industry or at the least his contributions are minimal)
 

Unrulyhandbag

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Why the hell has it take this long, the guy has no legitimate defence against these claims. Guess that won't stop his lawyers bullsh*tting in court though.
 

Atmos Duality

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So, EA games proves to have an ethical purpose after all.
I'm not going to wait for that particular brand of lightning to strike twice though.
 

Outlaw Torn

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BboyTeddyBear said:
i've had a bit of ill relation with EA the mega publisher, but this finally puts EA back into the good light. Go ea!

(judges should read online forums about what they think about Langdell and maybe they'll see that he doesn't contribute at all to the industry or at the least his contributions are minimal)
Or they could just see how much of Edge Games income has come from avenues other than taking legal action against people or licensing out commonly used words. When they see they haven't actually done any other work they will see the light and let Tim be the first to try out Bethesda's real-life working Fisto.
 

Ironic Pirate

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EA versus Tim Langdell? The first fight in a long time where I hate both parties, and it's not to the death. Damn it.

And how the hell does he think he owns the word edge? Because it's the name of his company?
 

Deathfish15

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How the hell does the US Patent Office actually sit there and award someone claim to a single, common-use word like that? It's totally crap.

Besides awarding the full claim to EA, the judge of this case should also throw the book at him, literally throw the damned swearing book (The Bible) at him and hit him in the forehead.

P.S. EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE EDGE (There, now he can try to sue me as well for using his copyrighted word.
 

Galaxy613

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I hope this goes through, I was thinking of making a iPhone game called "Space Edge, The Edgening!" Here's a mockup:
 

BboyTeddyBear

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Outlaw Torn said:
BboyTeddyBear said:
i've had a bit of ill relation with EA the mega publisher, but this finally puts EA back into the good light. Go ea!

(judges should read online forums about what they think about Langdell and maybe they'll see that he doesn't contribute at all to the industry or at the least his contributions are minimal)
Or they could just see how much of Edge Games income has come from avenues other than taking legal action against people or licensing out commonly used words. When they see they haven't actually done any other work they will see the light and let Tim be the first to try out Bethesda's real-life working Fisto.
that would work very well too or at least we would think so lol.
 

Starke

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Ironic Pirate said:
EA versus Tim Langdell? The first fight in a long time where I hate both parties, and it's not to the death. Damn it.

And how the hell does he think he owns the word edge? Because it's the name of his company?
Basically. He filed for use of the name back in the 80s when the company still existed as developers. You can probably find the whole story online someplace (maybe even here.)