![\"edgelol\"](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/edgelol_501936420.jpeg\" "\\"edgelol\\"")
<\/p>\nSo there\u2019s this guy, Tim Langdell. \u00a0He owns a game development and publishing company called Edge Games, celebrated by gamers everywhere for classics like that one game or whatever it was they did before 1994. Because they haven\u2019t actually put out a single title since then.<\/p>\n
Boldly undaunted by the negligible inconvenience of having no industry prestige or even anything remotely resembling a proper catalogue, however, Tim Langdell and Edge Games are very much in business. See, in 1984, Tim filed and, by means surely darkly sorcerous for its total lack of sensible reason, was granted an exclusive commercial trademark for the word \u201cedge\u201d in both the UK and US. Basically, he owns the word \u201cedge\u201d, because he claims his company has released a bunch of stuff with the word \u201cedge\u201d in it, including comics and games, and \u2013 wait for it \u2013 Edge Magazine. If that\u2019s not a sign of an impending \u2013 and, frankly, well-deserved \u2013 apocalypse of everything everywhere, I\u2019m not sure what is.<\/p>\n
Anyway, since he\u2019s not actually busy making games or anything, Tim spends most of his time pursuing frivolous litigation against anyone else who uses the word \u201cedge\u201d in a product name. For the most part, these have been brought against small independent developers who couldn\u2019t afford to finance a court case, forcing cash settlements instead. How very clever.<\/p>\n
But Tim Langdell dreamed big. Frustrated, perhaps, that his company\u2019s enterprises continued to drift like a little turd on the murky peripheries of petty scandal and cheap opportunism, Langdell decided to take EA to court over Mirror\u2019s Edge, filing the claim over his own company\u2019s rather dubious and conspicuously recent \u201cforthcoming attraction\u201d, \u201cMIRRORS, a game by EDGE\u201d. Really. Because, you know, when one of the planet\u2019s biggest game publishers releases a game called Mirror\u2019s Edge, people are obviously going to confuse it with a game they\u2019ve never heard of by a developer they\u2019ve never heard of, who might be working on it at some point maybe, and somebody should totally do something about that.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, perhaps, but EA didn\u2019t exactly declare a meek mea culpa, and put stickers over the word \u201cedge\u201d on the twelve billion copies of the game they\u2019d already pushed out to retailers. Instead, they promptly filed a counter-suit, accusing Langdell of fraudulently acquiring his trademark from the US Patent Office with falsified supporting evidence. For example, here is the cover of Tim Langdell\u2019s alleged July 2004 issue of Edge Magazine, alongside the cover of the real July 2004 issue:<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s so hard to choose a favourite part, but I think I\u2019m going to have to go with the Crayola-esque recolouring of the logo, although its overall grade 8 Life Orientation project finished under the desk during first period design aesthetic comes in a close second.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more. From the judge\u2019s report of the proceedings:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, Dr. Langdell\u2019s declaration asserted that Edge Games has been selling the video game Mythora (supposedly bearing the \u201cEDGE\u201d mark) since 2004. Curiously, while the exterior packaging submitted by Dr. Langdell to the [US Patent Office] for the Mythora video game included a website address, this website wasn\u2019t even registered by Edge Games until October 2008 \u2013 nearly four years after the game\u2019s purported release.\u201d<\/p>\n
In conclusion, of course, the court has just denied Langdell\u2019s injunction against EA and cited him for \u2013 seriously, I\u2019m not making this up \u2013 \u201ctrolling\u201d the industry for licensing exploitation. The court has also proposed that his trademarks be cancelled, pending final agreement from EA and Langdell\u2019s lawyers (which is pretty much inevitable), and further suggested he may face \u201ccriminal penalties\u201d for falsifying his application evidence.<\/p>\n
Discuss the Tim Langdell story<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n\n\t\t