Tim Langdell refutes "trademark troll" tag
Controversial Edge Games man has his say.
Edge Games man Tim Langdell has hit back at allegations that he's a "trademark troll", speaking publicly for the first time since losing a legal tussle with EA over the Mirror's Edge title.
A lengthy character defence handed to Eurogamer sets out to correct a long list of "misconceptions" about Langdell 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."
According to the document, it was Future Publishing – which publishes Edge magazine - that demanded Langdell take action to protect the trademark, following agreements between the two in 1996 and 2004 to share ownership of the name.
Langdell alleged the publisher "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 under the agreement between Future and Edge," the statement insisted.
It goes on to claim that Langdell has never sought to extract payment from other companies for game licenses, "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."
Edge Games also dismissed allegations that it's "lawsuit happy", stating that prior to 2009 it hadn't sued anyone other than Future. In fact, Edge Games itself was sued twice, once by Velocity Micro and once by Cybernet Systems.
"In both cases the law suits were settled amicably in Edge's favor with neither Velocity nor Cybernet paying Edge a royalty, license fee or any payment at all.
"Edge does not make a habit of taking legal action over the Edge mark: in the past 20 years Edge has only ever taken only two legal actions: one against Future Publishing (in 1994) and a second against EA (in 2010) - and the latter was because Future required them to do so."
Finally, it disputes claims that the company exists only to squat on the Edge trademark, insisting it is an active game developer that regularly releases new titles.
"Edge has released new games on a regular basis at all times in the past 20 years, albeit at a lower rate than it did in the 1980s.
"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."
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."
Edge Games is currently appealing against a lawsuit Future successfully brought against Langdell earlier this year and is "confident of prevailing".
It has also filed a counter-claim against Future on the grounds that it has damaged the reputation of Edge and Tim Langdell by forcing Edge to take action against French developer Mobigame and EA.
Not only that but it hopes to help Mobigame promote its game Edge, the target of one of its prior legal proceedings, now that it is no longer bound to its agreement with Future.
According to the statement, "Edge has extended the olive branch to Mobigame’s David Papazian and not yet had a response."
Langdell was thrown out out of the International Game Developer Association following the EA lawsuit – a decision which Edge Game deems "extremely unfair and unfounded".
"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."
Eurogamer has contacted both Future and EA for comment and will update when we hear back.