Lawyers Propose To Abolish Langdell's Edge Trademarks, EA 'Pleased'

Documents relating to EDGE Games' trademark lawsuit against Electronic Arts are proposing a final judgment that strips Tim Langdell of his Edge trademarks, a settlement EA tells Gamasutra it would be pleased with. Earlier this week, the District Court for the Northern District of California refused to execute a preliminary injunction that prevented the marketing and sale of EA's Mirror's Edge game, which Tim Langdell's EDGE Games asked for in its suit. Judge William Alsup cited several issues with EDGE's case, including "compelling evidence that there was no bona fide use of the 'EDGE' trademark between 1989 and 2003," and that "even after 2003, the evidence that plaintiff had been making bona fide use of the 'EDGE' mark in commerce is suspect." He also argued, "The record contains numerous items of evidence that plaintiff wilfully committed fraud against the USPTO in obtaining and/or maintaining registrations for many of the asserted 'EDGE' marks, possibly warranting criminal penalties if the misrepresentations prove true." Lawyers and the judge are currently reviewing a proposal for a final judgment [PDF, via Cowboy Programming], that orders the canceling of EDGE Games' U.S. trademark registrations for the words "Edge" (two registrations), "Cutting Edge", "The Edge", and "Gamer's Edge". Electronic Arts released a statement regarding the proposal to Gamasutra, "We’re pleased that we’ve reached a settlement and can put this behind us. This settlement goes a long way in protecting the rights of independent developers." French indie studio Mobigame removed its iPhone puzzler Edge from the App Store in April after allegedly receiving legal threats from Tim Langdell in April 2009. The game returned to Apple's platform several months later shortly after EA filed a petition to cancel the former IGDA board member's trademarks. Mobigame's CEO David Papazian, who supported EA's call to revoke the trademarks, told Eurogamer yesterday, "It is just the beginning, Tim Langdell did not harass only EA or us, but many other companies... We are still thinking to start a legal action against Langdell to claim a reparation for the prejudice, but we also have other priorities and we prefer to look forward."