Edge Games
Edge Games, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pasadena, California, best known for the practices of its founder and chief executive officer, Tim Langdell, in enforcing trademarks relating to the word "edge", which sources have described as "litigious".
In 2010, Edge Games sued Electronic Arts for trademark infringement, but eventually settled, with Edge surrendering many of its registrations. The United States Patent and Trademark Office cancelled the trademarks by court order in April 2013. Under the terms of its settlement, Edge Games may not register these trademarks again.
History
Tim Langdell founded Softek Software, later incorporated as Softek International Ltd, in the UK in 1980. Softek's early games output for 8-bit computers such as the ZX Spectrum consisted mainly of simple clones of popular arcade games. These included Firebirds ', Ostron ' and Monsters in Hell ' which reached the top 10 charts in 1983. The programmers working for Softek included Graeme Devine and Andrew Glaister who also produced Softek's Sinclair BASIC compiler, Super C. One of the conditions of using Super C was that Softek would be entitled to seek royalties on any commercial programs produced with it, which one reviewer described as "morally indefensible". According to Langdell, code produced by the compiler contained routines that were the property of Softek and that any programs produced using it were "not wholly the copyright of the writer that used the program". Softek went on to demand a 5% royalty from Silversoft for using the compiler to produce their Slippery Sid game.In 1984, Langdell announced an offshoot of Softek called The Edge - a "creative group" of freelance artists, programmers and musicians. Quo Vadis was reported to be the "largest arcade-adventure yet seen on a micro" and was promoted with a prize of a gold and silver sceptre with an estimated value of £10,000 given to the first person to complete the game. The game was a number one hit on the Commodore 64 and £30,000 was added to the potential prize when sales of the game passed 100,000. Reviewers noted that many of The Edge's early titles lacked originality. Starbike was extremely similar to Lunar Jetman, Psytraxx drew unfavorable comparisons with Atic Atac and Brian Bloodaxe was a Jet Set Willy-style platform game. Fairlight, a number one game on the ZX Spectrum in 1985, originated in attempts to replicate the Filmation system used by Knight Lore. Programmer Bo Jangeborg later alleged that Softek withheld royalty payments for the game unless he signed up to produce further titles.
In 1986, Bobby Bearing received glowing reviews with many comparing it to Spindizzy and Marble Madness although the programmers stated that it was inspired by Knight Lore as well as the arcade game Q*Bert. By the end of the year, the company had published their first officially licensed arcade conversion, Konami's Shao-Lin's Road, and Fairlight II was released to critical acclaim. It was later revealed that Fairlight II had been released without Bo Jangeborg's approval, and in an unfinished state with a number of bugs, one of which meant the game could not be completed.
Further licensed titles were announced in 1987. Garfield: Big Fat Hairy Deal was the first video game based on Jim Davis' Garfield comic strip, a second Garfield game, Garfield: Winter's Tail, was released by The Edge in 1989. A new label, Ace, was created to publish conversions of Sega's Alien Syndrome and Taito's Soldier of Light and Darius. Darius was eventually published over two years later by The Edge under the title Darius +. Darius + saw the first introduction of a new logo for The Edge designed by illustrator Rodney Matthews who also produced the cover artwork for the game. The new logo only appeared on one more title from The Edge, The Punisher, based on the Marvel Comics' character of the same name. Planned for release on five different platforms only the Atari ST and Amiga versions were released. A trilogy of games based on the X-Men that had been announced in 1989 were never completed.
Edge Games''', founded in California in 1990, acquired the intellectual property assets of Softek; they have released nine games since 1990.
Trademark disputes
Edge Games has been involved in a number of disputes over trademarks connected to the word "edge".''Edge'' (iOS game)
In May 2009, French indie game developer Mobigame had their iOS title Edge removed from Apple's App Store in the US and the UK due to lawsuit threats by Tim Langdell. According to Mobigame, the dispute arose while they were trying to register a trademark for Edge in the US, while Langdell claims he owns the global trademark on "Edge".According to the email dialogue between Langdell and Mobigame head David Papazian, shared with Eurogamer, Langdell delivered an ultimatum to Mobigame in exchange for a promise not to litigate. If they changed the game's name, he demanded 25% of the game's revenue for the time the title was on sale under the name "Edge", and if they licensed the Edge name, they would give him 10% of the game's revenue in perpetuity and subtitle it "An Homage To Bobby Bearing", with the Edge Games logo on the title screen. Papazian claims that he suggested the alternative title "Edgy", but that this was rejected by Langdell for being too similar to "Edge". Edge Games subsequently registered "Edgy" as a trademark. An Edge Games spokesperson, writing from Tim Langdell's personal email address and signing off as "Tim Langdell", claims that their registration was the result of a misunderstanding "probably in part caused by David Papazian's less than perfect English". However, many journalists who talked with David Papazian confirmed that Papazian's English is "absolutely flawless".
On June 18, 2009, it was reported that the game had been restored to the App Store with its original name intact, though later reports indicated that the game had once again been pulled in July 2009, and Mobigame confirmed that they had voluntarily withdrawn the game while considering their options. Mobigame's lawyer, speaking to Eurogamer, stated that "Mobigame's position is that the trademarks owned by Edge Games are not enforceable against Mobigame or any third party in respect of the distribution of the Edge game," because "there is unlikely to be any confusion or association between them and Mobigame's game" and those trademarks "are liable to be revoked".
Soon after, Edge Games published an "open letter" on its website claiming that several of the statements in the Eurogamer article were false. Mobigame's lawyers issued a response to the effect that the Eurogamer article is accurate and that Edge Games's rebuttal is false, and stated that they were gathering evidence to demonstrate that communications Edge Games claims, in its rebuttal, to have made did not actually occur.
The game was eventually put back on the App Store in UK and US markets on October 7, 2009, under the title Edge by Mobigame. Speaking with Kotaku, Papazian said, "On the legal side, cannot claim anything against "Edge by Mobigame" and Apple knows that, so we hope everything will be alright now."
On November 26, 2009, Edge by Mobigame was again removed from the App Store. An unnamed Edge Games representative stated "Adding 'by Mobigame' was determined not to get around infringement." On December 1, 2009, the game returned to the App Store under the name Edgy, but Mobigame soon removed it for fear that Langdell would use the legal precedent in his legal battle against EA.
In May 2010, the game returned to the App store under the name Edge. Mobigame had the following to say regarding the ongoing legal battle:
Electronic Arts petition for trademark cancellation
petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cancel a range of registrations associated with Edge Games and Future Publishing on September 11, 2009. EA stated that it had filed the petition because Edge Games had "continuously" threatened legal action with respect to the title of EA's 2008 game Mirror's Edge, and that the trademarks had either been obtained by fraud or abandoned through nonuse. Edge Games' Tim Langdell responded that Edge Games had not threatened EA with legal action, and that the two companies had been in amicable settlement talks over EA's use of the mark "Mirror's Edge" since late 2008. Langdell added that the 2008 federal court case Edge Games, Inc. v. Velocity Micro, Inc. had ruled that Edge had not obtained any of its trademarks by fraud, nor abandoned them through nonuse. Prior to filing their petition, EA voluntarily abandoned their application for the "Mirror's Edge" mark on September 8, 2009.Edge Games filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against EA over the "Mirror's Edge" mark in June 2010. Almost a year later, and after a case in the UK court against Future, Langdell claimed that Edge Games filed the lawsuit against EA at the insistence of its trademark partner Future Publishing. Edge Games charged EA with engaging in willful infringement and unfair competition, and requested damages and a court injunction against further infringement. EA responded with a counterclaim to cancel Edge Games' trademarks, and argued that Edge Games obtained the trademarks based on fraudulent representations to the USPTO including doctored submissions of magazine covers and game boxes. EA added that the trademarks had not been in commercial use at the time of registration. The judge denied Edge Games' request for an injunction in October 2010, stating that Edge Games had abandoned use of its marks, misrepresented its case to the USPTO, and not shown their use of the trademarks to "legitimately extend beyond trolling various gaming-related industries for licensing opportunities."
EA and Edge Games reached a settlement in early October, where Edge Games would surrender the trademarks "edge", "cutting edge", "the edge", and "gamer's edge". No damages were awarded to EA or Edge Games, and each would pay their own legal fees. The settlement stipulated that neither party admitted fault or wrongdoing and that no party was found guilty of wrongdoing. On October 10, 2010, it was reported that the settlement had been approved by the judge, and a final order had been issued. The USPTO cancelled the five "Edge" trademarks on April 9, 2013.
EA disclosed the terms of the settlement to Microsoft Corporation in 2024, which in turn filed these as part of its defence against a trademark claim by Langdell. The settlement terms forbid Edge Games or any related entities from registering the aforementioned trademarks in any class, in any jurisdiction, at any point in the future.