Court Once Again Confirms Right Of First Sale For Software: You Own It, Not License It

EA Asks Gov't To Dump Ridiculous Langdell 'Edge' Trademarks

from the about-time dept

Fri, Oct 2nd 2009 5:36am — Mike Masnick

Earlier this year, we wrote about Tim Langdell and his claim of owning a trademark on the word "edge" when used in any kind of video game. Of course, Langdell last came out with a game himself in 1994, which makes the whole trademark claim pretty iffy. You need to be using your mark in commerce for it to be valid. Instead, Langdell just seems to be trying to stop anyone else from using the word "edge." Thankfully (as a bunch of you sent in), EA has finally decided to stand up and ask the USPTO to dump Langdell's trademarks. Beyond claiming that the marks are abandoned, EA is also claiming that they were obtained through fraudulent means. Either way, it seems that the basic "moron in a hurry" test should knock out most of Langdell's claims. It's too bad how rarely that test is used...

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Filed Under: edge, tim langdell, trademark, video games
Companies: ea

10 Comments

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Anonymous Poster, 2 Oct 2009 @ 6:03am

I never thought I'd actually be rooting for EA to take down anyone, but in this specific case, I'm more than happy to make an exception.
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- Killer_Tofu (profile), 2 Oct 2009 @ 6:18am
  
  Re:
  I agree.
  I think EA has done many a stupid thing over the years (as well as run quite a few game series in the ground).
  However, lately they seem to be starting to wise up.
  As long as they continue this good trend of standing up for what is right (I know, it is relative person to person) such as fighting pointless trademarks and lawsuits, as well maintaining the customer oriented approach (no DRM allowed) I just may come to respect them again.
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  - Dark Helmet (profile), 2 Oct 2009 @ 6:58am
    
    Re: Re:
    Agreed.
    
    Then the jackasses can get started on bringing baseball back to PC Gaming.
    
    I can only update on www.mvpmods.com
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  - Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2009 @ 7:09am
    
    Re: Re:
    It's gonna take way more than that to get me to respect them again. They need to start respecting PC gamers again and stop making games and not releasing them on the PC.
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  - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 2 Oct 2009 @ 7:21am
    
    Re: Re:
    That's the great thing about people like us. We are willing to accept change. We still follow the "fool me once" motto, but we will accept the change when it truly comes.
    
    If EA douse keep up their path and works to show the gamers respect we will eventually respect them back.
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A Dan (profile), 2 Oct 2009 @ 7:04am

The relevant game
If anyone's wondering, and can't click through gaming website links like I can't, EA claims that he keeps threatening to go after them for Mirror's Edge.
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- Anonymous Poster, 2 Oct 2009 @ 9:55am
  
  Re: The relevant game
  Which is hilarious, considering that Langdell was advertising a game he was developing called "Mirrors" and placed the title right above the word "EDGE" on his website...and the font used for the title of the game looked awfully familiar...
  
  Langdell was more than happy to push around smalltime developers. Now that he's pissed off the giant that is EA? LANGDELL IS SMALLTIME.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2009 @ 11:32am

How can anyone trademark Edge in a video game? Circuit's Edge is a computer game developed by Westwood Studios and released by Infocom in 1989. It was based on George Alec Effinger's 1987 novel When Gravity Fails. The game was a hybrid interactive fiction/role-playing game; it contained a window of text, a graphic window for depiction of the player's current location, and various menus and mini-windows for character statistics and other game functions. Planet's Edge is a 1991 space science fiction computer role-playing game developed by New World Computing with Neal Hallford as the lead designer. The game's plot centers on investigating the sudden disappearance of planet Earth, by venturing out into the universe from a moon base. There are two main play modes: real-time exploration and combat using various spacecraft, and turn-based exploration, problem solving, and combat on the surface of hundreds of planets. Like most CRPGs, the game features a variety of objects, weapons, and quests/missions, but unlike most CRPGs, it lacks any detailed experience or stats system for the four characters the player controls.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Oct 2009 @ 11:33am
  
  Re:
  Argh, forgot that HTML doesn't do line-feeds automatically.
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Still don't trust EA, 3 Oct 2009 @ 7:10am

In typical EA fashion they will file for a patent on the word "edge" right after Langdell's one is thrown off.
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