Tim Langdell Speaks Publicly Since Being Branded a "Trademark Troll" - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 21 July 2011 / 5,233 Views
First, a little back-story: Timothy Langdell, PhD was ordered by the British High Court to surrender any copyright claim to the words 'edge', 'cutting edge' and 'gamer’s edge' November of last year when he lost a legal battle with Electronic Arts over the game Mirror’s Edge. Mrs. Justice Proudman said, “I am satisfied that EIM and Games Inc are controlled exclusively by Dr. Langdell. A “Jack Phillips” has occasionally put his name to witness statements on behalf of EIM in the past but he is not mentioned at all by Dr Langdell in his evidence and I suspect (without making any findings in this respect) that [EA] is right in saying that he does not exist and is an invention of Dr Langdell.” He was branded a “nuisance litigator” when he attempted to sue anybody who used the word “Edge” in their product. That was the last anybody had heard from him, until now.
He’s handed a long character defense to Eurogamer about himself and Edge Games.
Previously Edge Games and Tim Langdell have made virtually no public statements about the various Edge disputes over the past two years since it seemed clear any statement they made would not be reported fairly," the document begins. However, they believe the time has come to try to set the record straight on a sizable number of misconceptions and falsehoods that have been circulating on the Internet.
Langdell says Edge Games publisher “Future Publishing” (who shared a copyright claim) demanded that he take action against companies using the word “edge.” Future Publishing "required Edge to challenge rival attempts to register or use the Edge mark or face severe penalties from Future for failing to do so. Edge would never have taken the action [against EA] if Future had not required it...”
He also claims that it was never his intention to take payment for game royalties "other than very rarely taking a token payment when the other party was happy to offer it."
The suggestion that Edge or Tim Langdell acted as 'trademark trolls' by bullying people or taking legal action to force companies to pay license fees is an entirely false allegation. They have never done that. Edge and Langdell have always acted ethically and with integrity.
He dismisses accusations of being lawsuit happy, saying that prior to 2009 he never sued anyone, other than Future Publishing. In fact, they were sued twice: by Velocity Micro and by Cybernet Systems. Both cases were settled amicably in Edge’s favor, without taking any money from either company. They then discounted claims that they were a trademark squatter, existing only to pounce on companies who used the word “Edge.”
"Despite the false reports, Edge has released a number of games since the mid 1990s, continuously selling and releasing new games at all times from 1984 right through to Bobby Bearing 2 in 2011." It was the judge in the losing EA trial herself who said that Langdell hasn’t produced anything since the 90’s.
As well as the aforementioned Bobby Bearing 2, which is apparently due soon on "Android, Mac, PC and other platforms" Edge Games also has "several new releases planned for 2011-12 for the iPhone, Android, Wii, PS3, Xbox360 and PC." We'll see.
Edge has filed a counter-claim against Future Publishing on the grounds that it damaged his reputation. Langdell has since been thrown out of the International Game Developer Association. " Edge is very aware that EA's representative on the IGDA Board, Jamil Moledina, factored into the IGDA Board's unfair decision. A decision that Edge very much trusts the IGDA will reconsider and reverse given the truth about what actually did happen these past two years."
