You thought the comedy was over?
John Walker, over on the fine PC gaming news site Rock, Paper Shotgun, has written a wonderful update on our favourite trademark troll. So quit reading these words and get clicking on the link below.
It is so ordered
What a glorious read! 23 pages of joyous, hard-hitting, unquestionable, slamming & victorious truths.
For the Last time?
Mobigame have been granted the right to release EDGE on Apple’s App store again in the US and UK.
To celebrate this fantastic news they’re offering the game at a discount price of $0.99/£0.59 from now till Monday 10th May.
Visit the Game’s App Store page to take advantage of the bargain price.
UPDATE:
If you’re not seeing the correct price in iTunes, it’s probably because their servers haven’t updated yet. The price should appear soon.
App-alling Behaviour?
Indievision, the website and organisation of developers that aid other developers has been trying to address Apple in regards to their position in the whole Edge debacle. They originally contacted Apple back in November ’09 in hope to get some direct feedback or even action against the claims of Tim Langdell in both the case of Edge from Mobigame and Killer Edge Racing by Nalin Sharma.
Fast-forward to now and Indivision has made an attempt to address Apple in the case of EA’s release of Mirror’s Edge on the newly launched Apple iPad device- the big sister to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The situation we have is that Edge by Mobigame is still missing from the App store thanks to Langdell’s last demand for removal. We here at ChaosEdge, like many others believe that this is wrong and as a result of the actions have lost Mobigame and Nalin Sharma a great deal of money in lost revenue and just as important, removed the chance for video game fans around the world the chance to play their creation.
EA have recently released their title Mirror’s Edge on the iPad app store, and is set to release it on the iPhone in the near future. So we now have a game on the App Store featuring the word Edge, which contradicts the argument made against both Mobigame and Nalin. Is this just a matter of time before Langdell reaches for his quill and writes a letter of tall claims to Apple and they dutifully remove Mirror’s Edge from the App store? Or is it a case of big powerful EA gets the golden handshake, while small fry Mobigame and Nalin Sharma get swept under the rug? That’s exactly what Indivision is asking Apple in their letter and that’s what we want to know.
We’ll post the results here when they appear.
Release Dates
Recently, only last week in fact, we posted a piece that questioned the release dates for EDGE Games’, some were perilously close and others had been missed by an epic mile (That’s like a mile only bigger).
Thankfully, EDGE has updated its website revising the dates, so you should probably all go off to EB, Game and the rest of the stores you have preorders with to make sure that they got the update.
It is odd though how these release dates, having been unchanged for so many months now, find themselves being updated a few short days after we called EDGE Games out. Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?
Here we have the latest updates:
2010 WANTED LIST
After the promise of Fall 2009 raced on by, the game is resting in the pits till Summer 2010 for the PS3 and Fall for Wii/360. We can only hope that when it finally ships, the game will be packed with plenty of ® and smatterings of ™.
Those of you looking anxiously at your hand held Apple device, wondering where that Killer App is, you’ll sadly have to wait a while longer as Bobby Bearing Remix is now due Summer 2010.
We questioned just how long one has to be prepared for in order to be amazed, EDGE believes that wait has to be until Summer for the fullest effect.
Gamers of the world are going to be hard pressed to find time to enjoy the sun, beach and other leisurely pursuits this Summer with EDGE making a fourth release during this window. Firebirds, seen here now without any stolen artwork, is set to cap off what is clearly going to be a wonderful season of games from the famed developer.
Here we round off our Wanted 2010 list two Fall releases, Battlepods and Mythroa II the sequel to the game that’s currently rocking its way up the charts thanks to its recent Amazon release.
It’s hard not to question these dates though, as it’s not the first time that we’ve seen them slip. There must be some real issues going on at EDGE Towers if we’re seeing their entire development portfolio slip by many many months. This kind of delay has seen the death of many other publishers out there, and we wonder that, when Summer finally arrives are we going to be seeing those dates change to Fall, Winter or even 2011? Maybe if we saw some screenshots or even a video of gameplay it would reassure us all that things are on the right track and gamers can relax knowing that these wonderful titles will find their way on to our consoles one day soon.
So how about it Tim, you’ve managed to speedily update your release dates after we sign posted them the other day, how about you update your site with some gameplay trailers or screenshots? Maybe get the developers working on the games to start blogging their time, it’s getting very popular for game developers to blog their work these days, why no let us enjoy a weekly MIRRORS blog fix?
For those of you that have raced the heck out of RACERS and de-mythed the demons of Mythora, fear not, you can have your EDGE fix right now. All in the form of some wonderful clothing and branded merchandise.
Just take a look at this Tee. Strutting round in one of these bad boys will surely make you the talk of the town:
Just look at the quality of the cap, see how the logo is so elegantly cut off round the edges so that it’s missing letters. We’re talking high grade merch here, no expenses spent.
Until the time comes again…
The Legal Story So Far
We’ve been gone for a while, well not gone, but lurking, waiting in the shadows till the time was right to stand up once more and set records straight.
There was some recent confusion, the fireworks set off prematurely and people began to dance. It was fun to watch, a taster of what will come, but it was all too soon. Edge Games haven’t yet been defeated, and like Ganondorf at the end of a Zelda epic, you have to expect a few false endings before the trademark beast falls for the last time.
Since our last update EA has continued to pursue their case with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Like any legal case it’s often difficult to grasp what’s going on thanks to the legal jargon, so we’re hoping that this break down will give people a better understanding of the events so far.
11th of September, 2009
EA files a Petition for Cancellation against five of Edge Games’ current trademarks. They allege that Langdell has threatened them with a trademark suit regarding Mirror’s Edge since September 2008, that on this basis they expect Langdell to oppose their use of the title “Mirror’s Edge”, and that therefore his trademarks are causing them harm.
EA’s filing disputes several important parts of Edge’s filings, made under penalty of perjury:
- The dates of “first use” of the trademarks
- That Edge was currently using the marks in commerce in the five years before its applications
- That the specimens Edge submitted with its applications were products that were actually on sale within the five years before the application.
- That some of the specimens Edge submitted with its applications were products that actually existed, e.g. the Edge mag
Essentially, EA argues that some of these marks were never used by Langdell in the first place, or have fallen into disuse, and thus the registrations are not valid. As many of these statements were made under penalty of perjury, the consequences could go beyond a mere trademark de-registration.
EA’s filing explicitly alleges fraud in obtaining the registrations in question.
27th of October, 2009
Langdell submits his response, a motion to dismiss. The much-discussed dispute between Velocity Micro and Edge is at the centre of this. In brief, Velocity Micro pursued Edge in a court in Virginia on similar grounds, accusing Edge of fraudulently obtaining its trademarks and of not using the marks in commerce. Before the case reached a stage where evidence would’ve been presented and legal matters discussed, Edge and Velocity Micro met in the Judge’s chambers and settled.
That settlement formally found that Edge had won on the merits of its case, and the case was dismissed “with prejudice”, i.e. a decision against Velocity. Velocity’s related disputes with Edge in the USPTO were also dropped, however because Velocity Micro withdrew outside of the correct timeframe, without written consent from Edge, the dismissal was also “with prejudice”.
Langdell’s motion to dismiss states that because of these results, “facts and arguments alleged by [EA] in the current proceedings have already been argued and ruled on” in his favour, and that there is no case left to litigate. Legal terminology is not used.
30th of October, 2009
Langdell files his certificate of service with the USPTO indicating that EA had been properly served with his response. It’s here that he uses the term “stare decisis” to describe the basis for his motion, i.e. that the court must respect its own previous decisions on matters of law.
6th of November, 2009
EA files its response to Langdell’s motion. They interpret his previous filing as being based on “collateral estoppel”, the legal principle that once properly litigated and decided one way or another, a matter of law or fact cannot be litigated a second time on the same set of facts. Their understanding of Langdell’s motion is that all the matters have been fully decided in the Velocity Micro case. Their argument is that regardless of the similarity of the disputes:
- EA was not a party in the previous case, while collateral estoppel in trademark disputes requires that both parties by the same (mutuality).
- The previous case was not litigated fully, because it never reached the “discovery” stage, much less an examination of the two sides’ claims.
On the same day, EA enters a request for a particular date for their own case’s discovery conference
9th of November, 2009
EA requests that a USPTO attorney be present at the discovery conference.
19th of November, 2009
Apropos of nothing and with no explanation, Edge submits a fax from the 26th of October regarding an overlooked filing for one of the trademarks.
22nd of November, 2009
Edge submits its own response to EA’s response, arguing that:
- There was indeed a basis for collateral estoppel. Langdell cites a previous case which found that the parties need not be identical, so long as the current parties were “adequately represented by someone with the same interests who [wa]s a party” in the previous case. Langdell interprets this as meaning “it is sufficient for just one party to be common to both issues”, i.e. Edge Games.
- The previous case “was litigated fully and as a result of discovery between the parties”.
25th of November, 2009
The day before Thanksgiving in the US, the USPTO pulls on the brakes, informing EA that the timing of the case would reset until Edge’s motion was settled, so they wouldn’t be getting their discovery conference yet.
Time passes…
11th of February, 2010
EA files a second case against “Edge”, 78981284. The case has a similar basis to the main case.
22nd of February, 2010
The USPTO returns its decision on Edge’s motion to dismiss, denying it. Based on Edge and EA’s correspondence, they interpret Edge’s motion for dismissal as one for summary judgement on the principle of res judicata, that a matter was already judged. This is a legal principle related to collateral estoppel. The USPTO rules on its own criteria for collateral estoppel and res judicata, that there are no grounds for dismissal.
- Their interpretation of res judicata and collateral estoppel requires that both parties be the same. They note the case Langdell cited. In that case there was “privity”. An aviation enthusiast lost a case, and an identical case was submitted by a friend represented by the same lawyer. As Langdell has shown no similar “privity” between EA and Velocity Micro, they do not consider this argument to be valid.
- They find that the matters were not actually litigated in the previous case at any rate.
The USPTO’s decision notes that EA’s allegations of fraud were not up to standard, because they fail to explicitly state the set of facts that lead them believe Langdell acted fraudulently, and did not allege an intent to defraud the USPTO on Langdell’s part. They ask that EA resubmit their case with this corrected within 30 days, or they will suppose that EA had dropped the fraud aspect. Regardless, Langdell has 60 days to file his answer to EA’s case.
19th of March, 2010
Langdell files a motion to reconsider his motion to dismiss, arguing that it was based on stare decisis, and not res judicata. He argues, in order, that:
- This was his intent all along, and that it was understood by him from the outset that a res judicata motion would fail.
- That under stare decisis, all the issues of fact and law in this case have already been decided in his favour in the prior cases, and thus the case must be dismissed, unless EA can show that the issues of fact and law are different.
- That EA’s allegations of his threats to sue are untrue, and thus they have not shown that there is any harm in his continued registrations.
- That by failing to continue to pursue its own “Mirror’s Edge” application, EA has conceded the matter to Langdell.
- That stare decisis requires that EA show that the previous decisions were erroneous.
- “Once the District Court determined that there was sufficient evidence that EGI had not abandoned any of its registered marks, it logically follows that no evidence the petitioners can now bring to the current proceeding can reverse that decision.”
- That EA has failed to show that it has a basis to clear damages, and has already conceded the matter by failing to pursue its own “Mirror’s Edge” application.
Throughout, Langdell uses the word “principal” in place of “principle”.
19th of March, 2010
Landell files his answer to the smaller case, denying any issues which are not a matter of public record, and in particular that it has abandoned its marks or that EA has a common law trademark in Mirror’s Edge. No motion to dismiss is filed.
24th March, 2010
EA files its amended petition, alleging fraud on the basis that Langdell understood that his filings were invalid, and that the USPTO would uphold the filings on the basis of the false information he provided.
29th March, 2010
USPTO again pulls on the brakes pending the resolution of the motion to dismiss requested on the 19th of March.
31st March, 2010
EA requests that the motion to dismiss is abandoned on the basis that the arguments put forward by Langdell have no basis in law or fact.
To Summarise
EA’s objection to Langdell’s trademarks was essentially that Edge no longer used the marks in question, had never used the marks in the manner requested in the registrations, or had misrepresented how long the marks had been in use. EA alleged that this was deliberate fraud, and that Langdell had been threatening to sue them since September 2008 over Mirror’s Edge, and therefore the continued registrations were doing them actual harm.
Langdell’s first defence was to move to dismiss the case, because similar accusations had been made in Velocity Micro vs. Edge. In filing his certificate of service, stating that he’d sent his motion to EA (a procedural formality overlooked in filing his motion to dismiss), Langdell used the term “stare decisis” to describe this motion. “Stare decisis” is the principle that the court must respect its own prior decisions on the interpretation of the law, so that the law is consistent. Of course one can still argue that a prior decision was erroneous or appeal it.
EA’s response was to state that his motion to dismiss was on the basis of collateral estoppel, also known as issue preclusion. This is the legal principle that once the court has made a decision on a matter of fact or law, it can’t be hauled back into the court to be decided again in a different case. It’s a principle intended to stop people merely re-litigating the same issue ad nauseum without making a new argument. Their understanding of Langdell’s case is that all of the issues raised by EA have already been settled in Langdell’s favour in the previous case, and therefore would be found in Langdell’s favour here, so there’s no point in continuing.
EA argued that among other things, collateral estoppel requires that both parties be the same (mutuality), and that issues of fact and law actually have been decided in the case. They point out that they were not a party in the previous case, and that the previous case ended before any issues of fact or law were actually decided by the judge (and in fact before any evidence was presented).
Langdell then filed his own answer, arguing that mutuality isn’t a requirement, citing a previous case, and reiterating the judge’s statement in Velocity Micro vs. Edge that he was found to have won “on merits”.
Mutuality’s actually a bit of a grey area, and varies depending on the kind of court and case. For example, it’s been found that if a decision between a bank and a customer has been made, the same decision holds between the bank and all its other customers in identical cases.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board responded by stating that they interpreted Langdell’s motion as one for a summary judgement on the basis of res judicata, an umbrella term encompassing issue preclusion, regarding decisions on facts and the interpretation of the law, and the idea of claim preclusion, regarding a particular legal claim such as seeking damages for getting hit by a car. In their view, mutuality is a requirement, unless “privity” is shown. In the example Langdell citied, privity existed because the two cases had the same defendant, and the two different plaintiffs were close friends connected by the issues being discussed in the trial and represented by the same lawyer. They also agreed with EA that no issues had actually been decided in the previous case.
In the same motion, the TTAB told EA that if they wanted to pursue Langdell for fraud, they must make explicit claims that Langdell intentionally defrauded the USPTO. EA was given an opportunity to do so. However the TTAB would continue address the validity of Langdell’s trademarks regardless of any allegations of fraud.
EA filed its amended claim with the allegations of fraud. Langdell has now filed another motion to dismiss, arguing that his previous motion was actually on the basis of stare decisis all along, and making various accusations regarding whether EA has actually suffered any harm from his registration or has any right to a trademark for Mirror’s Edge. However he has not stated any issues of law which have actually been decided upon on the previous case or that are in question here, which would be necessary for a motion of stare decisis.
So we’re left waiting again. For how long? Well, the last event like this back in November lasted for 3 months.
Update:
It seems that EA aren’t too happy with these delays. In a letter sent to the TTAB, they request that the case is continued and the current motion to dismiss, abandoned. In doing so they’re calling out Langdell, stating that his arguments have no basis in law or fact. Presumably here, they’re simply suggesting that Langdell’s actions are simply delay tactics, which is something that fits his previous legal battle M.O.
Keep on Truckin’
In the mean time we can stay vigilant, keep our eyes and ears plugged to the web and report any events that might help this case, or any of the other related cases for the future. For instance things like this:
A recent update to the EDGE Games website revealed a new link in place of the old store link. It’s a very odd piece for a number of reasons:
- Why does it show Edge Magazine’s logo looking less like Edge Magazine’s logo than Edge Games’ logo which was originally stolen from Future Publishings Edge Magazine? (Langdell loves to create this game of confusion)
- Why does it state that Edge Magazine is published electronically? – Edge Magazine aside from its website is a print magazine and has been since its launch in 1993
- Why does it state that it is done under licence from Edge Interactive when we believe that the trademark for the magazine is owned by Future Publishing?
- Does this have anything to do with the reports that Langdell was spotted roaming around GDC clutching on to a copy of Edge Magazine?
It’s things like this that we need to keep aware of, updates to that site never happen ‘just because’, there is always a reason. We’ll work this one out soon enough, but it’s important that the more people know, the quicker these quests are beat.
A second recent update to the Edge Games website is the move to start selling games on Amazon as well as the Edge Games Store. We can use the word ‘Games’ correctly here as what he’s selling is just about plural. You see, in order to confirm to the legal eyes and the world over that Edge Games is a world wide powerhouse of a publisher, Langdell is offering the sale of TWO games on Amazon, that is TWO Units, 1 copy of Mythora and 1 copy of RACERS.
I think it’s clear that EA now has a new battle on their hands, as does Activision, Ubisoft and all the other publishers out there. Just be ready to see those weekly charts burn up as Edge Games hits that coveted number 1 spot.
Speaking of RACERS, Langdell has also stumped up the cash to pay to get the game an ESRB rating in a move to attempt to legitimise the game.
It’s amazing that he’s gone so far to spend the cash to get the game rated, when its being sold (To ChaosEdge) on DVD-Rs.
And Tim, really, you can register all the domain names, ratings and trademarks you can think of, but nobody is buying this till we see ACTUAL copies of ACTUAL games for ACTUAL sale.
Say perhaps the PS3 version of Racers that was supposedly being released Fall 2009, where is it?. We know where it is of course, but we’ll let you be the one to answer that.
It’s Spring 2010 now, so expect us to start asking where our Xbox and Wii versions are soon enough. You can’t burn those on a home DVD burner.
Any other game missing?
2010 WANTED LIST
Bobby Bearing, the game that Edge from Mobigame ripped off (In Langdell and only Langdell’s eyes), the cause for so much upset and lost sales on the AppStore after the release of Edge. WHERE IS IT? Release date 2009? Looks like someone needs to get a new calendar.
MIRRORS, release 2009/2010, just how long do we have to be prepared for?
Firebirds, release 2009/2010, what’s the delay? Can’t find enough art to steal to get the game finished?
Go Team!
To end this return of ChaosEdge, we’d like to give our continued thanks to everyone that’s commented, emailed and tweeted us so far. What we have here is a collection of work by each and everyone of those passed on links, bits of research and fine examples of Google-fu.
Until next time…
EDGY
Langdell managed to pull his tricks again in getting Apple to remove Edge from the App Store. He’s found his tool of choice now, the letter to Apple seems to work his bidding nicely. So again, to try and make a living from what they do best, Mobigame has had little choice but to change the name of their game Edge, this time to Edgy and Apple in all fairness have been gracious enough to quickly reprocess the application and put it back on the store (under the new name) in very quick time.
So yes, Edge is on sale (as Edgy) and can be purchased here.
To end this short article, it would be a shame to not poke a bit fun towards our Bowser of the trademark industry. Recently Develop Online published an article that featured a statement from an Edge Games representative.
the company took issue with the new name for Mobigame’s iPhone title, which was once called ‘Edge’ but then sold as ‘Edge by Mobigame’.
“Adding ‘by Mobigame’ was determined not to get around infringement,” said Langdell’s ‘rep’.
In this argument against the name ‘Edge by Mobigame’, Langdell, sorry, Edge Games Rep claims that adding a company name to the word Edge isn’t enough to get around the trademark.
That’s a funny argument, because if Tim casts his mind back to when he wrote a letter to the US Trademark office in 1997, he might remember making the following statement in defence to his own trademark claim.
[snip]
So what you’re saying Tim is that it IS ok for a company to add their name to the word EDGE to differentiate it from another trademark?
The statement in the article doesn’t end there either, Langdell makes an even bigger guff here where he seems to claim that he actually invented the word ‘Edge’.
“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.”
No Tim, what you’ve done there is liken the word iPod, one that was invented solely for use by Apple in defining their product line of portable music/video players, to Edge, a word that has been around for centuries and has many meanings and uses.
Lets try your argument again shall we with a more common yet trademarked word. Lets use ‘Apple’. Everyone knows Apple, they make computer hardware, software, they even run the store that you love writing letters to. It’s a trademarked word yet has many meanings, just like your beloved Edge. So Surely with these two words being so alike, they must both be treated in the same way.
No Tim, you see Trademarks are all about protecting from customer confusion, and you see from the above image that we have a host of games and applications on the Apple App store that all use the word Apple in them (There are actually over 20 Apps in total). No one is confused about the above apps, no one thinks that Apple and Monster is by the same company that makes the Macbook.
We hope that one day soon Apple will see that they’re being used as a tool to do Tim’s bidding and finally add his email to their spam filter, until then, we’ll keep on trucking and continue our parade of pointing out the plot holes in the story of Tim Langdell.
Sales +4779! Trademark Disputes +1!
In the last article we spoke in some depth about order numbers, it’s a little dry but there’s no doubt that it’s another facet in the world of EDGE Games that needs making public. Today we’ll try to bounce off some of that order number banter with news on EDGE Games’ latest legal hunt (So skip to the end if your eyes can’t take it).
First here’s a quick list of all the games EDGE have sold (possibly in years):
1001 – 09/01/09 – Mythora – To ChaosEdge
1002 – 09/29/09 – Mythora / Bobby Bearing – To ChaosEdge — Order Cancelled and Refunded
1003 (3462) – 09/30/09 – RACERS – To ChaosEdge
1004 – 10/31/09 – Mythora – To ChaosEdge – Order Cancelled and Refunded
5783 – 11/09/09 – RACERS / Mythora – To ChaosEdge
5784 – 11/09/09 – Bobby Bearing – To ChaosEdge
5785 – 11/10/09 – Bobby Bearing – To ChaosEdge
We won’t even send a bill for doing the accounts book, that’s how nice we really are.
So as you can see there’s a bit of an oddity with those sales numbers. Sure we might not be the only ones buying from the world famous, all original and founder of our beloved industry publisher (That’s EDGE Games if you hadn’t guessed), but some how we seriously doubt that.
In the last article we had gone as far as making order 1004, which was cancelled by Langdell and refunded as “out of stock”. At which point all the store items were set as “out of stock” or “on back order” meaning that NO purchases at that time could be made.
On 9th November Langdell ‘reopened’ and the store began offering items for sale again, so we did a test purchase.
Look at the order number, 5783. Does this mean that in the few hours the store was open Langdell received 4779 orders?
We contacted SmartCart about how the order number system worked.
“We can update the starting invoice number at no additional charge.”
Based on this reponse and past evidence where Langdell tried to claim order 1003 was “a system error” and meant to be 3462 and based on past performance of the store where nobody was buying items except ChaosEdge, this high order number is unlikely to be accurate.
But we need evidence to support this ‘no ones buying’ claim, so the next day another test purchase was made resulting in:
Even though the purchases are nearly a day apart the order number is only one higher, so no other purchases were made in that 24 hours, where as Langdell claims that thousands were made in much less a period of time only the day before.
All in all, this supports the case that Langdell got the order number altered to show a higher number than he has actually sold items for.
To really confirm though we needed another day to test this again:
No surprise, the order number is 5785, one higher than the previous day.
Of course pigs could well be flying here and we could be wrong, but obviously we’ll await that verdict, perhaps when Langdell has to show his tax records in proof that his company is a world class publisher of MODERN GAMES on MODERN PLATFORMS …
One more time for the people: EDGE Games have NEVER published or developed a game on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, Gamecube, N64, Super Nintendo, DS, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, Gameboy, Megadrive (Genesis) or iPhone.
So beyond the order number banter we promised some info into Langdell’s next possible move in the world of trademark trappings and nefarious shenanigans.
Recently, very recently in fact, the EDGE Games website was updated with a whole new range of products. And these aren’t the type that were made by other people and heavy handedly threatened into a licence agreement, but are in fact totally original products that even have that special EDGE Games vibe about them, you know the thing, they look like they’ve been knocked up in Microsoft Paint.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to present to you: THE EDGE(R) MEMORY!
Oh the excitement, USB and SD memory cards! We can’t wait to get out hands on those
Shame.
So maybe these products are the idea of branching out into new realms now that the gaming industry has become sour to the worlds most famous publisher that no one has heard of.
Of course not.
This latest move is part of a battle against computer memory company Edge Tech Corp, a company that Landell has been in trademark wranglings with for much of this year. Yes, that’s another company and another trademark dispute.
Langdell’s dispute has been the usual complaints of customer confusion. We’re sure his inbox has been filled a hundred times over with baffled punters saying that they looked on the wrong site when trying to purchase MIRRORS.
That’s not all, as there’s also been talk of lost sales, all those folks that visited the Edge Tech site by mistake and couldn’t find MIRRORS, ended up buying a few flash sticks, OBVIOUSLY. As you can tell Langdell was furious at these lost imaginary sales, but even he’s not stupid enough to try and challenge the fact that he lost sales to products he doesn’t sell.
So how did he go about fixing that problem?
He updated his website and began to sell memory cards, thus creating confusion, or so he thinks.
“In short, the marks are identical (THE EDGE) and the goods are identical”, no Langdell what you meant to say was “I looked at their website and using Microsoft Paint, I stuck my logo on to some generic memory sticks and then uploaded them to my website”.
UPDATE:
A little more proof to show that Langdell fabricated these memory card images only the day before sending out the legal letter to show that EDGE Games sells the products. As you can see at the right of both the images (One image for each memory card) the date of uploading is 5th November 2009, and the letter sent out (See above image) was stamped as 6th November 2009.
So we’d like to wish Edge Tech Corp all the best in this trademark wrangle, we’re behind you all the way.
We can’t end this article without showing just how the game industry community is reacting to Langdell’s trademark ways: ATOMIC EDGE GAMES
Let’s thank Langdell, no really, we should thank him, because it’s times like these that really draw folk together. Who’d have thought the day would arise when Indie’s the world over would be coming together alongside the likes of EA? That’s the power of this event and it’s a nice way to look at a brighter side of all this negativity.
Video Games Killed the Racing Star
It’s been a while since we last made a post here at ChaosEdge, the last one you might remember was of great joy, as Mobigame’s award winning title Edge made its way back onto the Apple App store. This post however is more in tune with what ChaosEdge is now so used to writing. More tales from the wild world of Edge Games and their seemingly never ending work to try and make a mockery out of our beloved industry.
With so much going on it’s hard to know where to start. We’re sure that most people want to know about EDGE Games’ latest release RACERS. It’s been almost two months now since its release date, we’d like to thank you for your patience in waiting so long.
RACERS was first announced on the Edge Games website a few months ago. The announcement was soon updated with an actual release date 09/09/09 as well as it’s very own website (which sloppily hasn’t been updated to show that the game is now out). We covered some background information about RACERS in a earlier post.
As you may remember we missed the boat when the game was first released on 09/09/09, that was when the entire stock of the game managed to sell out between the order numbers 1001 and 1002, so we had to sit and wait to see if it was ever going to return to the store.
Luckily September proved to be a fun month, what with the news of EA stepping in to take a hold of the whole Trademark ownership part of the fight giving us the legal grunt and raw power of hard cash to finally put a rest to EDGE Games’ constant wailing of ownership over their precious words… If the trademarks were a ring eh 😉
On the 30/09/09 RACERS reappeared! Back in stock and ready to buy. And buy we did. We were not willing to give this game another chance to slip out of our grasp.
After the order was made we patiently waited for a confirmation, but nothing came. Over ten days passed we received no response, no shipment date, nothing. It was starting to sound like Order 1002, which hasn’t been spoken about on here, but it took some involvement of PayPal to even get a response from EDGE Games. It would be good to tell the story about order 1002 one day, it’s quite the interesting adventure in its own rights.
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:34:01 -0700
Subject: Order #1003, Racers
From: XXXX XXXX
To: Edge Sales <sales@edgegames.com>Dear Edge Sales,
I ordered “Racers” on September 30th, Order #1003, ID XXXXXXXXXX, for XXXX XXXX. Two weeks have now passed.
I have still not received the game, or any indication it has shipped, or any reason why not. Please can you let me know when I will receive this game. If I don’t hear from you today, I shall be forced to lodge a complaint with PayPal.
Regards,
XXXX XXXX
Another week went by without a response. It seemed that EDGE Games were more than happy to take our cash, but they certainly didn’t want to part with their precious game (There’s that word again, can’t shake the image now).
So we looked to get some help from PayPal by sending them a message regarding a possible fraudulent sales case.
A few days after, we finally receive contact from EDGE Games’ sales department, commonly known as Tim Langdell to most people.
From: “Edge Sales” <sales@edgegames.com
To: “XXXX XXXX”
Subject: Re: Order #1003, Racers
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:15:22 -0700Dear XXXX XXXX,
You should have received an automated system message informing you about this shipment. We apologize if you did not. A software error was detected in the launch version of the game you ordered. This caused your shipment to be delayed while the error was corrected. The error was corrected and the game is currently being reproduced. Your copy should be shipped to you shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Edge Games Sales
Thankful to finally hear from them, but still skeptical about the order, we mailed a response asking for an exact shipment date; all the time keeping the case open with PayPal in order to protect our backs. PayPal stated that EDGE had to respond by the 29th. The race was on, we waited for either PayPal to refund us or for EDGE to ship the game.
From: service@paypal.com
To: XXXX@XXXXX.XXX
Subject: Resolution of Your Case: #XX-XXX-XXXHello XXXX XXXX,
We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your favor.
We were able to recover $32.00 USD and this amount has been credited to you. Please allow five business days for this adjustment to be posted.
If you are due any additional funds, we will make our best effort to recover the balance from the seller.
If the seller’s account has insufficient funds to complete the refund owed to you, please be assured that we will take appropriate action against the seller’s account, which may include limitation of the seller’s account privileges.
———————————–
Transaction Details
———————————–Seller’s Name: Edge Games Inc
Seller’s Email: payments@edgegames.com
Seller’s Transaction ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Transaction Date: Sep 30, 2009
Transaction Amount: -$32.00 USD
Your Transaction ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Case Number: #XX-XXX-XXX
Buyer’s Transaction ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So PayPal didn’t like the lack of communication and decided that EDGE Games were acting fraudulently.
Case over then, money returned, no RACERS, no fun new game to play…
From: “Edge Sales” <sales@edgegames.com>
To: “XXXX XXXX”
Subject: Re: Order #1003, Racers
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:43:12 -0700XXXX XXXX,
your order #3462 (“Racers”) shipped on 10/30/09. Here is your tracking number 8664 7599 7848
Our apologies again for the time it took to get the new shipment of this product in stock.Edge Sales
WHAT? So we’re getting the game as well as the refund?!?! It’s like Christmas.
Finally on the 2nd November the shipment arrived
Here’s a close up of the invoice:
#2 Original order number 1003 was a system error?
Was it now? So Tim (Bored of calling him EDGE Games for now) claims that our order number of 1003 should have actually been 3462. Is that a claim that 2461 (order start at 1001) games have been sold on the EDGE Store since the start of September and somehow Smart Cart (That we’ve tested out ourselves) messed up and produced the wrong order number. We find that hard to swallow. So hard in-fact that we had to make sure, if our last order was 3462, then if we made another one it would be 3463, correct?
Of course not it’s 1004. Tim doesn’t sell games. That’s a fact. So far his store has made four orders, all to ChaosEdge and all part of our research into showing exactly who EDGE Games are and what they do. Despite the huge amount of publicity EDGE Games have found themselves getting over the past few months, no one has purchased a game from his store. How’s about that for a world famous publisher.
Despite all that, we finally have RACERS in our hands. So let’s take a look and see what it’s all about.
The game arrived in a black DVD case much like Mythora; however, this one came shrink wrapped, always a great sign of a world class publisher.
The inlay, exquisitely printed using what has to be one of the most wonderfully average home inkjet printers, comes with a fine smattering of TMs and (R)s. We have the classics like EDGE(R), Gamer’s Edge(R) and THE EDGE, as well as some that haven’t really been thrown around all that much before Magic Edge(R) EDGE NET.
It’s hard not to love the random and oh so weak selling points: ‘Variety of power-ups’ Tell us more Tim, ‘Numerous Achievements’ We’re reaching for our wallet, please continue, ‘Will you become … the ultimate SPACE RACER!’ Shit, yea! You’ve sold us, an exclamation mark, the ellipsis. We need this game … !
The disc for Mythora was a home brew burned CD-R, but for RACERS Tim’s stepped up the pace as this game ships on a DVD-R! Still made on a home PC complete with a wonderful Inkjet label, but not just any label, this one that reaches the EDGE of the disc, which looks like an obvious ploy to try and hide the fact that the game comes on a DVD-R.
However, for all its crudeness and sub-skilled efforts in producing a boxed copy of the game, the real shocker is that we believe EDGE Games does have a deal to publish this game. The IBA Group, developers of the product are still very much alive and running and have made no move to stop the game from being released.
We can only presume that when Lexicon Entertainment the original publisher of the game went bump around the end of 2008, IBA Group were left with a game on their hands that they’d funded, developed and were expecting to release in hope to recoup their costs. Without a publisher this couldn’t happen.
Around this time we guess that Tim stepped in with his promise of worldly riches. We’re betting that in his sales pitch he spoke about how EDGE Games is one of the oldest publishers in the world, about how EDGE Games was once SEGA of Europe, how the company has produced over 750 games, is world famous, launched the well known Edge Magazine, published comic books, endorsed films, produced PC hardware, licensed console peripherals. What’s the betting that during this sales pitch he spoke of developing for the PS3, 360, Wii and DS as well?
We’d like to offer any future developers thinking of doing work for EDGE Games our own version of a more truthful EDGE Games sales pitch:
EDGE Games have NEVER published or developed a game on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, Gamecube, N64, Super Nintendo, DS, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, Gameboy, Megadrive (Genesis) or iPhone.
EDGE Games operates from a mail box – The big three hardware manufacturers don’t grant the right for developers or publishers to work on their consoles without a registered office.
EDGE Games have NOT produced comic books
EDGE Games have NOT published over 750 Games (The number is actually around 74, nearly all of which were in the 1980’s)
EDGE Games have NOTHING to do with the magazine Edge (Future publishing)
EDGE Games have NO TV Crossover projects in the pipeline
EDGE Games DO NOT produce PC Hardware or Wii Peripherals
EDGE Games was NEVER SEGA of Europe (They converted and published Alien Syndrome in 1988 under licence from SEGA, that doesn’t make them anything more than a 1980’s developer/publisher)
EDGE Game DO Steal peoples work from places such as Deviantart
EDGE Has a history of NOT paying developers for work [1] [2]
One Rodney Matthews, respected artist and designer of video game company logos for Travellers Tales, Bizzare Creations and musician Rick Wakeman, gave us this statement regarding EDGE Games ability to kindly pay for work carried out.
Dear XXXX XXXX,
Thank you for your email concerning the ‘Edge’ logo and Tim Langdell.
Indeed, I can confirm that Langdell personally commissioned the logo design and artwork from me and used it, but did not pay my invoice. Neither did he return to me the original artwork as he had agreed to do.
I tried repeatedly to contact him on both accounts only to be ignored. He ultimately became untraceable.
I am extremely surprised to hear that he has been trusted with a position of authority. [IGDA Director]
Yours sincerely,
Rodney Matthews.
Let’s get back to RACERS
EDGE Games clearly state on their website that they’re producing a PS3, 360 and Wii version of the game. We here at ChaosEdge are excited to see how the one man band is proposing to successfully deliver a legally signed PS3 Blu-Ray disc from a home DVD burner. You see real publishers that do real publishing have real offices, work with real production plants and distribution centres, employ real marketing teams and real aftercare services. They do not produce games burned on home DVD burning equipment, with box covers printed on home inkjet printers, they certainly don’t email zipped games to customers (Just another little hint regarding order 1002).
The console manufacturers simply won’t deal with a home office setup, this fact has been the annoyance of indie developers the world over but sadly it’s a fact. It’s possible to develop titles for the Xbox 360 using the XNA suite, but they can only be released via digital download under the appropriately named Indie Games banner and only offer restricted access to the hardware, preventing any home setup from making the next Gears of War.
So we sit and wait to see how RACERS takes to the next stage, we certainly hope that EDGE Games haven’t falsely lead IBA Group on in pretending to be anything more than a one man company who’s day job is a lecturer.
But why has Tim released the title RACERS? Why not SHOOTERS or JUMPERS or KICKERS? Well we touched upon this in our earlier post regarding the game. It seems that Tim’s reason for wanting to release RACERS is two-fold, the first is to try and show the courts that EDGE Games is something more than a trademark hunting outfit by making an attempt to sell games. The second reason is because of titles such as Killer Edge Racing, by Nalin Sharma, which is currently selling on the iPhone app store.
UPDATE: No sooner do we post this story, only to discover that Killer Edge Racing has been taken off the App store. Our thoughts go out to Nalin, who, as you’ll see as you continue to read this article has every right to sell the game on the iPhone. Anger is brewing now, so we’ll leave this update short. Please continue to read on, and we hope that the points made show you how truly messed up this situation has become.
Just as history repeats itself, Tim has again written a letter to Apple, making claim that Killer Edge Racing is actually trying to trade off of EDGE Games strong brand (“What brand?” the crowd call out).
The letter, makes for quite a read, sitting well within the typical M.O we expect to see from Tim these days.
Quite the title eh?
“As well as being a well known developer and publisher of games on all formats” We’ve already shown how this line is a big old bag of lies previously in this article, but let’s do it again just to make sure everyone is clear: EDGE Games have NEVER developed or published games on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, Gamecube, N64, Super Nintendo, DS, GameboyAdvance, Gameboy Color, Gameboy, Megadrive (Genesis) or iPhone.
Continuing the charade he states “the EDGE brand is extremely well known for its other game products and services such as EDGE game PC’s (on sale at BestBuy, Staples and elsewhere), THE EDGE game controllers (also on sale in BestBuy and elsewhere) and so on”. Again, ChaosEdge has already researched and posted on this site that those links are tenuous at best, where any connection between the products and EDGE Games comes from legal threats and demands just like the one we’re quoting this very information from.
This part is interesting:
Is that statement claiming that Killer Edge Racing was produced BECAUSE EDGE Games were releasing RACERS? Langell certainly hasn’t done his homework here, because there was no mention of RACERS coming before 2009 and we know for a fact that RACERS was previously developed under the name Voltage, to be published by Lexicon until late 2008, whereas Killer Edge was originally developed during 2004 and first shown on public display in 2005 at the World Mobile Congress. But as always don’t let facts get in the way of a good trademark trolling session.
Apple seem to be quickly becoming a tool in Langdell’s arsenal, so far he has succeeded twice in getting them to remove Mobigame’s Edge title from their store, and he hasn’t stopped there. After Edge’s recent release on the App store, again Langdell has seen it fit to send Apple a letter requesting its removal, despite the fact that its title is now called ‘Edge by Mobigame’. It seems that you’re either licensed by him or against him in this world, there’s little in-between.
Sadly Langdell isn’t the only one that’s discovered the trick of using Apple to remove the competition from the App store. Side stepping the whole EDGE Games set of shenanigans for a moment we’d like to show you another case of Apple’s dispute policy abuse. Recently Stoneloops! of Jurrasica was taken off the App store after a request from a rival company was sent to Apple, making what seemed to be unsupported allegations of code theft, design theft as well as other claims of infringement. It’s an interesting story and deserves your attention.
Apple need to really take a grip of their dispute policy here, its far too open to abuse and their decisions are clearly being made without proper investigation or requirement of solid facts.
Returning to Killer Edge Racing, it’s clear to us now that RACERS is a tool in Langdell’s trademark arsenal and he wants Killer Edge Racing either as his own or gone for good. Sending a letter to Apple isn’t his only aggressive tactic employed because he’s also gone and filed to register the… drum roll … Trademark!
You’ll have to bear with us on this journey now as we’re going to step through this trademark explaining each point on the way.
This isn’t as clear cut as it usually is. The trademark has been registered under the company name of EDGE RACING, not EDGE Games or The EDGE or any other usual moniker of Tims.
First we’ll look at the address, not the usual mail box we’re used to seeing (70 South Lake Avenue Pasadena, CA), but believe us, this is still a mail box. In fact why not have a photo of the place to help set the scene.
So if this isn’t Tim’s usual mail box, then how do we know the Trademark is registered by him? Well, like those criminal types in old episodes of Columbo, there’s always a trail left behind. In this case we need to look at Tim’s other ventures to help us, one particular in fact: Langdell Brown Associates, the failed venture from 2005.
Notice that the address is almost the same, the only difference is that the suite, or mail box to us common folk is different, 1170 instead of 1700.
So we’re close now, but not 100% bullet proof, we need more evidence to tie this trademark to Tim.
Going back to the registration we see that Tim hasn’t signed his name, instead we have the name Jen Smith. Not one that’s ever cropped up before, but that shouldn’t stop us. We need to finish this and click the pieces in place.
Continuing the hunt we find the UK government trademark website contains an entry for Killer Edge Racing. It also contains key information, Edge Racers and Jen Smith, but more importantly BAIAS Ltd. based in a virtual office in London (Kinda like a mail box, but a bit more fancy)
Those of you not familiar with the BAIAS, or to give it the full title British Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, need only to look at the bottom line on the webpage to see what kind of thing we’re talking about here.
The BAIAS is an awards program set up by Tim, we’ve never heard of it hosing any shows nor do we know any developers that are members. It was first referenced on the now deleted wikipedia entry for Tim Langdell (The one written by his wife Cheri). Thankfully there’s a copy available here if you’d like to read it.
The name may sound familiar to you, but that probably more to do with the fact that it sounds a lot like The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, heck even the domain names are closely matched http://www.interactive.org/ (Real) and http://www.interactive.org.uk/ (Tim’s imaginary version). Anyway, we’re not here to talk about academies, real or not, we’re here to link Tim to the trademark Killer Edge Racing.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we’d like for you to take a look at the US address registered for the BAIAS: 269 S Beverly Drive, Suite 1700, Beverly Hills, CA.
Let us remind ourselves of the address on the trademark.
There we have it, proof that the suite (Mail box) that is used for Tim’s fictional Academy is the very same one used for the registration of the trademark. There’s no more coincidence, no loose links, that’s the real deal. Tim isn’t just attacking Killer Edge Racing by writing letters filled with false statements to Apple, but he’s also trying to block Nalin’s title by registering the trademark.
So there we have another episode in the crazy world of EDGE Games. As always there’s much more to tell, but we’ll have to save that for another day.
Let’s leave this piece with a look back to how a couple of Spectrum developers talked about their feelings of Langdell and Softek (The early name for EDGE Games) back in 1984 in an hidden easter egg found in the game Dark Star
EDGE is BACK! (The Good Edge)
Time for a post of joy and only joy from Chaos Edge today. Mobigame’s award winning title, the little game that brought this whole case of wild shenanigans to light, is back on the iTunes store for all to purchase.
I’m sure everyone is aware of the story now, but here’s a quick look back to the very start of this wild (and not yet finished) journey.
Back in May, an innocent post was made on the game news site Finger Gaming letting people know that EDGE had been pulled from the iTunes app store without reason.
Mobigame’s International Mobile Gaming Award-winning Edge is no longer available for purchase from the iTunes App Store in the U.S. and the UK. The reasons behind the removal are unknown at this time, though Mobigame promises that any future updates will be made available at its Twitter.
This news came as a bit of a surprise to me last night when I was recommending iPhone games to a friend, only to find out that Edge wasn’t showing up in an App Store search. Further searching revealed that web links to both the Lite and full versions turned up an error message explaining that “The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the US store.”
It’s certainly unusual for such a high-profile (and excellent!) title to suddenly go missing from the App Store for no readily apparent reason and with no explanation. Reports indicate that the title is still available for download in France, though other regions are out of luck for the time being. Here’s hoping that whatever resulted in Edge’s regional removal is resolved soon.
Little did the author know about the actual events behind the removal of the game.
Eventually Mobigame let people know the reason behind the titles disappearance from the iTunes store, and the events of the past few months began on their twisting and turning path of confusion, revelation, shock, awe, LOLs and cringes.
Today though is all about EDGE, the good EDGE, the award winning EDGE, the EDGE you can actually buy, play, enjoy and have full confidence that it was made by Mobigame, released by Mobigame and made with the sole intention of entertaining.
We’d like to finish this post with a short congratulations to Mobigame for holding strong for the past few months. It would have been easy to have just backed down and accepted what Tim Langdell demanded as so many others have, but the stand you made started the ripple that turned into a tsunami of support and agreement.
We hope that any other developers out there will take inspiration from Mobigame’s action and know that there’s support waiting for them in the form of fellow developers and gamers the world over.
Chaos Edge
Please help us to put a stop to this trademark bully!
ChaosEdge 
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