industry computer and video game industry founded 1990 headquarters pasadena california usa key people tim langdell ceo and founder website www.edgegames.com www.edgegames.co.uk edge games is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in pasadena california known for the practices of its chief executive and founder tim langdell in enforcing trademarks relating to the word edge which sources have described as litigious . 1 2 langdell has defended these practices citing that edge has only sued two companies since the late 1980s . 3 in 2010 edge games sued electronic arts for trademark infringement 4 but eventually settled with edge surrendering many of its registrations . 5 the us patent & trademark office uspto cancelled the trademarks by court order in april 2013 . 6 contents 1 history 2 trademark disputes 2.1 edge iphone game 2.2 electronic arts petition for trademark cancellation 2.3 future publishing 2.4 other 3 notes and references 3.1 notes 3.2 references 4 external links history edit edge games was founded in california in 1990 by tim langdell . at that time it acquired the intellectual property assets of langdell s former company softek software itself founded in 1980 in london england . 7 softek s catalog includes several games including fairlight released in 1985 and garfield big fat hairy deal released in 1987 . since the 1989 release of snoopy and peanuts edge games have released nine games in the last 25 years . 8 the edge website stated that two other multi platform titles mirrors 9 and mythora 2 are coming soon as are the playstation 3 and other platform versions of racers . the website also states that they are porting some of their commodore 64 games to wiiware . as of 2015 none of these titles have been released . trademark disputes edit edge games and edge interactive media have been involved in a number of disputes over the edge trademark . edge iphone game edit in may 2009 game developer mobigame s iphone title edge 10 was removed from apple s app store in the us and the uk due to lawsuit threats by tim langdell . according to mobigames the dispute arose while they were trying to register a trademark for edge in the us while langdell claims he owns the global trademark on edge . 11 according to the email dialogue between langdell and mobigames head david papazian shared with eurogamer langdell delivered an ultimatum to mobigames in exchange for a promise not to litigate . if they changed the game s name he demanded 25 % of the game s revenue for the time the title was on sale under the name edge and if they licensed the edge name they would give him 10 % of the game s revenue in perpetuity and subtitle it an homage to edge games title bobby bearing with the edge games logo on the title screen . papazian claims that he suggested the alternative title edgy but that this was rejected by langdell as too similar to edge . edge games subsequently registered edgy as a trademark . an edge games spokesperson writing from tim langdell s personal email address and signing off as tim langdell claims that their registration was the result of a misunderstanding probably in part caused by david papazian s less than perfect english . 12 however many journalists who talked with david papazian confirmed that papazian s english is absolutely flawless . 13 on the june 18 2009 it was reported that the game had been restored to the app store with its original name intact 14 though later reports indicated that the game had once again been pulled in july 2009 15 and mobigames confirmed that they had voluntarily withdrawn the game while considering their options . 12 mobigames lawyer speaking to eurogamer stated that mobigame s position is that the trademarks owned by edge games are not enforceable against mobigames or any third party in respect of the distribution of the edge game because there is unlikely to be any confusion or association between them and mobigame s game and those trademarks are liable to be revoked . 12 soon after edge games published an open letter on its website claiming that several of the statements in the eurogamer article were false . 16 mobigames lawyers issued a response to the effect that the eurogamer article is accurate and that edge games s rebuttal is false and stated that they were gathering evidence to demonstrate that communications edge games claims in its rebuttal to have made did not actually occur . 17 the game was eventually put back on the app store in uk and us markets on october 7 2009 under the title edge by mobigame . speaking with kotaku papazian said on the legal side langdell can not claim anything against edge by mobigame and apple knows that so we hope everything will be alright now . 18 on november 26 2009 edge by mobigame was again removed from the app store . 19 an unnamed edge games representative stated adding by mobigame was determined not to get around infringement . 20 on december 1 2009 the game returned to the app store under the name edgy 21 but mobigame soon removed it for fear that langdell would use the legal precedent in his legal battle against ea . 22 in may 2010 edge by mobigames returned to the app store under the name edge . mobigame had the following to say regarding the ongoing legal battle thanks to us the word edge is now free to exist on the app store like on any other marketplace and games like mirror s edge shadow edge killer edge racing or edge by mobigame can live on our idevices . 23 electronic arts petition for trademark cancellation edit electronic arts ea petitioned the us patent & trademark office uspto to cancel a range of registrations associated with edge games and future publishing on september 11 2009 . 12 24 ea stated that it had filed the petition because edge games had continuously threatened legal action with respect to the title of ea s 2008 game mirror s edge and that the trademarks had either been obtained by fraud or abandoned through nonuse . 25 edge s tim langdell responded that edge had not threatened ea with legal action and that the two companies had been in amicable settlement talks over ea s use of the mark mirror s edge since late 2008 . 26 27 langdell added that a 2008 federal court case a had ruled that edge had not obtained any of its trademarks by fraud nor abandoned them through nonuse . 26 prior to filing their petition ea voluntarily abandoned their application for the mirror s edge mark on september 8 2009 . 27 edge games filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against ea over the mirror s edge mark in june 2010 . 29 30 almost a year later and after a case in the uk court against future langdell claimed that edge filed the lawsuit against ea at the insistence of its trademark partner future publishing . 12 31 edge charged ea with engaging in willful infringement and unfair competition and requested damages and a court injunction against further infringement . 30 ea responded with a counterclaim to cancel edge s trademarks and argued that edge obtained the trademarks based on fraudulent representations to the uspto including doctored submissions of magazine covers and game boxes . 32 33 ea added that the trademarks had not been in commercial use at the time of registration . 32 33 the judge denied edge s request for an injunction in october 2010 34 stating that edge games had abandoned use of its marks misrepresented its case to the uspto 34 35 and not shown their use of the trademarks to legitimately extend beyond trolling various gaming related industries for licensing opportunities . 36 37 ea and edge games reached a settlement in early october 35 38 where edge games would surrender the trademarks edge registered twice cutting edge the edge and gamer s edge . 39 no damages were awarded to ea or edge games and each would pay their own legal fees . 40 the settlement stipulated that neither party admitted fault or wrongdoing and that no party was found guilty of wrongdoing . 39 40 on october 10 2010 it was reported that the settlement had been approved by the judge and a final order had been issued . 39 40 the uspto cancelled the five edge trademarks on april 9 2013 . 41 42 future publishing edit in 2011 it was revealed that future publishing the publishers of edge magazine had brought suit against langdell in the united kingdom for breach of contract breach of copyright and passing off through his use of the edge magazine logo and his representations of his connection with the magazine . future had licensed the trademark for the use of the word edge in magazines from langdell in 1993 when launching the magazine . the publisher bought the relevant part of the trademark from langdell outright in 2005 . in the intervening years future claimed langdell had co opted the magazine s logo as his own and claimed to have been involved in the creation or publication of the magazine . the action succeeded in all claims in a decision that described langdell s own evidence as invention incredible totally unconvincing and concocted . 43 44 in two lengthy missives sent to online games publications langdell indicated that he had lodged an appeal placing the blame for his actions with future and the responsibility for his loss with a gullible judge 45 who had made almost 100 errors of fact and law . 46 future in turn indicated that it had not been served with any new proceedings but had received permission to pursue contempt of court proceedings against langdell . 47 edge games was ultimately denied permission to appeal . subsequently the company applied to have future s uk trademarks assigned to it with dr. langdell signing on behalf of both future publishing and edge games . this application was rejected . 1 other edit in 2001 edge sought revocation of namco s united kingdom trademark soul edge for the arcade game soul edge for reasons including an alleged similarity between the edge and soul edge marks . the opposition failed on all grounds . nevertheless namco had already decided to use the name soul blade for the playstation version in the united states and europe to avoid potential complications with the name soul calibur being used on all sequels due to this . 48 in march 2009 cybernet systems corporation filed a lawsuit in federal court against edge . 49 in the suit cybernet states that they were contacted by tim langdell beginning in january 2009 and that he asserted his ownership of the term edge . the suit also alleges that langdell asserted his right to have the trademark for cybernet s edge of extinction game assigned to edge games and his further right to require cybernet to enter into a paid license agreement with him due to their use of the name . cybernet refused and when langdell threatened a lawsuit cybernet instead filed suit against edge . 50 edge of extinction was released in 2001 and is no longer an active game . 51 52 as of june 1 2009 edge games applied for a us trademark for the phrase edge of twilight . 53 this is the name of an upcoming steampunk fantasy game that has been in development by fuzzyeyes studios for at least two years . 54 55 in addition edge has been a plaintiff in lawsuits with new world computing over their title planet s edge 56 marvel entertainment over their titles cutting edge double edge and over the edge 57 58 sony entertainment over their playstation edge