Do Morons In A Hurry Play Games On Their iPhones?

from the use-in-commerce? dept

Mon, Jun 1st 2009 2:08pm — Mike Masnick

A whole bunch of people have been sending in the story of a guy named Tim Langdell, who claims to own the trademark to the word "edge" when its used in the name of any video game, and has used that to force a popular iPhone game, called EDGE, out of the app store. As the article points out, Langdell's last game was released in 1994, which makes you wonder if the name is still being used in commerce (a requirement for a trademark claim). And, of course, there's the question of confusion. Considering how few people have heard of Langdell's company, was there really any chance that "a moron in a hurry" would confuse a fun block game with Langdell's title's like "Snoopy: The Case of the Missing Blanket." Kotaku points out that Langdell appears to spend a lot more time these days talking to people about how he owns the word "edge" in any video game than producing or selling video games...

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Filed Under: app store, edge, iphone apps, tim langdell, trademark, video games

20 Comments

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Another AC, 1 Jun 2009 @ 2:41pm

Despite my skepticism in other stories, I will wholeheartedly agree that this fellow does not have a viable business model. I give my full sympathy to those who are working hard but can't quite figure out how to survive in the "internet age".

I have no sympathy at all for those who do not work hard but rather try to game the system in the internet age to gain an advantage without actually working. My daughter, upon hearing this story, said nothing. Just put her right hand on her forehead with thumb and forefinger in the shape of an "L". The world would be a much better place if we just laughed these jokers out of town rather than letting them try to exploit the legal system to make a buck without actually working.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2009 @ 2:51pm

Notice he's bullying some small-time developer, instead of going after EA over Mirror's Edge. Because EA would curb-stomp him.
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Tgeigs (profile), 1 Jun 2009 @ 2:56pm

Mm hmm
"Do Morons In A Hurry Play Games On Their iPhones?"

....Yes we do.
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Lucretious, 1 Jun 2009 @ 3:29pm

Re:
The world would be a much better place if we just laughed these jokers out of town rather than letting them try to exploit the legal system to make a buck without actually working.

That sentence could be applied to approximately 90% of all attorneys working today as well......
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Hank Orlowski, Certified Moron, 1 Jun 2009 @ 3:30pm

Hop on, Strap In, Enjoy The ride, but hope you know what your doing!
This story reminded me of this video for some reason-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp9Gm-aRe5A

Don't know why.
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Jason, 1 Jun 2009 @ 3:36pm

Re:
I say taze'im.
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Vermaak, 1 Jun 2009 @ 4:19pm

Stamp on the little guys.
I hate all this crap we read about company x having a product years ago that no one uses or even remembers and instead of innovating they use crap law to steal money of hard working innovative people.

I love Edge on my iPhone, it's one of the better games I have on it. Lets hope this gets sorted for better.
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Sos, 1 Jun 2009 @ 4:53pm

Edgy
Mirrors Edge, Edge of Twilight, Edge Of Chaos: Independence War 2, BAJA: Edge of Control, Cross Edge, Circuit's Edge, Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge, Fantasy Draft Edge Pro Football 2004 and of course the previous failed trademark claim Soul Edge (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/t-challenge-deci sion-results-bl?BL_Number=O/337/02)
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2009 @ 5:18pm

I didn't think it was possible to get a trademark on any common word such as edge. That would be like someone getting a trademark on the word water.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2009 @ 5:44pm

This seems like a trick question, only morons really want the iphone to begin with. There are a metric assload of them, but still....
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2009 @ 6:31pm

I know, off topic, but I have to ask, exactly how many is a metric assload??
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RD, 1 Jun 2009 @ 6:34pm

Yeah!
"I didn't think it was possible to get a trademark on any common word such as edge. That would be like someone getting a trademark on the word water."

Yeah, or something dumb like windows.....

oh wait...
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jun 2009 @ 7:02pm

Re:
I was curious about that too. With a little poking around on urban dictionary I found that a metric assload is much more than just an assload. A metric assload is about as much as a shitload. Now a shitload is more than an assload but less than a fuckton. A fuckton of iron has been calculated to be 8.806 * 10^21 kilograms of iron, or 1.941 * 10^22 pounds of iron. So a metric assload is something less than that.
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Matt, 1 Jun 2009 @ 7:39pm

Water as a Trademark...
Funny that you'd say that. I remember waaaaaay back in the halcyon days of yore... Maybe 1992 or so... Someone did, in fact, trademark the word "Water" for use in gaming. I can't recall the company (note: it wasn't TSR, I at least remember that much), but I do remember that another company had released a supplement for their game that had the word "water" in the title. To avoid an infringement suit, they had a disclaimer on the front that indicated that they were not affiliated with the company who, apparently, owned the rights to an unproduced game entitled, "Water."

Apparently, this was SOP for this particular company.
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Peter, 1 Jun 2009 @ 10:14pm

Re: OT again
For reference: 1 metric assload=2.2 shitloads
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mike, 2 Jun 2009 @ 5:14am

prior art
Apparently this loser seems to think he can copyright/trademark individual words...what we need to do is get someone with the name TIMOTHY LANGDELL to file suit to stop Tim langdell using the name in any way!
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PaulT (profile), 3 Jun 2009 @ 2:34am

Re:
That was my first thought as well...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2009 @ 11:46am

Stupid guy, play some free games and quit your bitching!
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fiesta, 15 Oct 2011 @ 1:57am

free games always like that.
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tahmilpramg, 1 Mar 2017 @ 7:18am

thanxxx
People are not fully committed to the future well being of the company. They just care about the now. Can we get cash now? Can we get paid.. now?

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