http://www.cultofmac.com/iphone-game-edge-by-mobigame-under-threat-again-from-tim-langdell/19640 Under threat yet again: Edge by Mobigame. We’ve reported before about the legal spat between Mobigame, makers of fine indie game Edge, and Tim Langdell, who appears to make his money by suing anyone daring to use the name Edge in a videogame, and makes rather spurious claims regarding how he ‘spawned’ almost any major property with the word ‘Edge’ in its title, including Edge magazine by Future Publishing, Marvel comic Edge, and, er, 1997 Anthony Hopkins movie turkey The Edge. (He’s also laughably stated in the past how he has come to an ‘understanding’ with a guitarist of a very popular rock band.) TIGSource has a great overview of the madness. Edge returned to the App Store recently, and Langdell will next year be battling EA, a company that’s had enough. Rather than just dealing with issues relating to EA game Mirror’s Edge—Langdell started advertising a game called Mirrors (a game by) Edge, which still doesn’t exist, and yet was in no way an effort to promote mark confusion—EA’s aiming to have Langdell stripped of all his Edge-related marks. EA’s documentation cites numerous examples of Langdell filing out-of-date and falsified specimens, and the fact Edge Games isn’t a viable commercial concern. (ChaosEdge offers running commentary regarding Langdell’s so-called commercial concerns—a Mythora ‘reissue’ they bought from Edge Games was a home-made burned disc; and despite Langdell claiming its game Racers had sold out, the second purchase ChaosEdge made days later had an order number only one higher than their pre-Racers order.) Last month, company spokesman Jeff Brown said: “While this seems like a small issue for EA, we think that filing the complaint is the right thing to do for the developer community.” Sadly, Langdell still won’t back down. We today heard Mobigame’s Edge is again under threat, with Apple giving the company five days to respond to yet another threat from Langdell. If you’ve an iPhone or iPod touch, get in there fast, because chances are that Edge is about to vanish yet again, and it may take an EA battering in court next year for Langdell to finally stop harassing indie developers. Edge is available on the App Store for $4.99. It’s really good, so go and buy it before it’s too late. I really cannot believe this is happening to "Edge" once again... What a nightmare for the developer & everyone else related to the creation of this amazing game, I only hope this comes to a favourable conclusion for Mobigame.
Somebody Assassinate this guy, please with a cherry on top. If you called him a d-bag that would be an understatement.
I'd suggest they just change the name of their app to something else, but it seems like they're making a good deal of money from the publicity this Tim Langdell douchebag is bringing
Ahh. I've been blaiming MumboJumbo all day for being a douchebag. Completely forgot Langdall is still alive(why? Sombody just shoot him. It'll be worth it). Hope someone finds a legal flaw somehow, anyhow, and this guy is forced to spend atleast a couple of years in the prison
this Tim Langdell guy seems like the kind of guy who is bald, fat as hell, and walks around in a suit in the city of new york always talking on his cell phone....
Hmm, it would be a good con on everyone if they planned this all along right? I mean, surely you check your not infringing on someone's intellectual property before you publish anything these days. Granted Langdell asked for this to be sure, but he should never have been allowed to think he has any kind of 'ownership' of a commonly used word as edge. This is an excellent example of a case begging to redefine the rules and boundaries of what constitutes I.P. Mobigame should just bite the bullet, alter the name (gracefully) and leave the courts to deal with Mr. Langdell once and for all.
it is a good question - at $5 I don't think -that- many people would have bought the app if it wasn't undergoing such drama (not to take away from the quality of the design!) yet i am sure whatever they are making pales in comparison to legal fees :/
I don't know. The game is really cool. It's critically acclaimed and has always been well reviewed. I know I had it well before this dispute became public. For every day the game isn't in the App Store, that's a day it loses the opportunity to gain sales and hit the Top list. Without that, regular viewers who know nothing of trademark disputes won't even know Edge existed at all. While Mobigame is earning lots of goodwill and sympathy in the "gamer" community, this particular headache is most likely way more bitter than sweet. I hope EA gets the job done. I'm really impressed with their attitude thus far.
Not that Langdell isn't an ass... But, wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier if Mobigame just changed the name of Edge to something else? I love the game, have been playing it for quite some time, but all this bulls**t over Langdell and the name Edge... It just seems to me that it would be much easier to simply change the name of the game and be done with it. The "publicity" that all the previous pulling of the game and final restoration hasn't done the game any good. It doesn't seem to be selling all that well. So it seems to me that its just not worth all the hassle. Just a thought...
is it just me or does apple pretty much let any developer go to the dogs if there is even a hint of lawsuit... pretty unforgiving imo
Lawsuits are more complicated than that. It's just not that simple. The whole thing kinda sux. This is totally true. Edge is a cool game and is always on the list of top platform games. They are clearly losing revenue because of this.
First of all, Mobigame chose the name "Edge" for a reason. It fits very well with their gameplay. So they're understandably reluctant to change. But they did offer to change the name of the game to "Edgy" in order to settle this thing. And guess what Langdell did in response? He ran out and copyrighted "Edgy" as well! I disagree about how well the game has been selling. It has a lot of reviews for a $4.99 game, and was on the top grossing list after it came back recently.
