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[Lurk]

Eclipse: Yeah, but I think Mobigame could be clever about it and just change the name to something like this

so there's still some kind of name recognition to the game that won awards edge => ledge and no confusion with Tim's awesome brand. He's got a case only if they let him have one. And if he claims still this is too close to his brand, you can go either with Pledge or Ledger.

[cactus]

Eclipse: Yeah, but I think Mobigame could be clever about it and just change the name to something like this

Not a bad idea, so I'm pretty sure Langdell will go and registered that trademark as soon as he sees it.

[Lurk]

Cactus: it might be a good way to bankrupt him in a sense, just flood him with words that contain the letters e-d-g-e in that order. I don't know how much it costs to register a trademark, but I think I read he needs to prove he's actually working on something related to that trademark within a certain number of years, hence his fake website with his space travel thing, and Mirrors a game by edge. If Mobigame was to change the game's name, and Tim was to persist in trying to gain something out of it, it would only prove his bad faith and give credence to the theories of him as an extortionist and a garbage person.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

Can't you all see that tim langdell is being bullied by mobigames?

All he does is give and contribute to the community and and all you do is bash him.

LEAVE LANGDELL ALOOONNEEEEE

[Snakey]

At least here in New Zealand, you can't just register a registered trademark over night and then call it yours. You actually have to prove that you've been using it for a while and have a reasonable recognition status. If this wasn't true, I'm sure all the words in the dictionary would have been bought by business's already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark

As described, you have to actually use it (one has to prove it too) within a certain number of years, or it simply expires. You can't simply buy it once and ressurect it later when something comes up.

The other potential snag with this whole thing is that you have to defend your trademark within a reasonable time period. You can't wait for a product to become 'famous' / 'rich' before you decide to step up the trademark infringement.

http://www.igfmobile.com/

Given that Edge had won awards as early as 26 - 01 - 09, it's unclear as to why Tim had waited till April. Since he claims to be active within the game development world, particularly with the IGDA and other organisations you would have expected him to be aware of the title as soon as it hit the news presses.

Still, I suppose one can always claim innocence anyways.

[Radix]

Let's all make a bunch of terrible Klik & Play games with "Edge" in the name.

I think this is a superb idea.

Ohohoh yes. Downloading KnP for Schools.

[Melly]

Unnoficial EDGE compo starts tonight.

[Alec]

Unnoficial EDGE compo starts tonight.

 

[Mipe]

Unnoficial EDGE compo starts tonight.

I'm doing it Tim Langdell style. That is wait until the winner is announced and claim all credits. 

[Lurk]

I should warn you people, that I filed for the exclusive use of the word "Edge" in a spoof competition made game, vaporware peripherals and potential galactic prostitution ring.

[Oddbob]

Well fuck.

I was about to start Edge Intergalactic Whores For Your Monies Enterprises too.

I hate you now, Lurk.

[Oddbob]

Very interesting post on the IGDA board btw. Look down to Ramsay's (stupid ancient vBulletin software means I can't find a direct post link):

http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?s=58ec495d656bba95eb846e7e5c62ab8e&threadid=35923

So, despite some bluster otherwise - it would appear that the IGDA board *do* have the power to act.

Bylaws

    * Article III, Section 4(b): Special meetings can be called by either the board chairperson or upon the request of 10% of the members. 35-days notice is required.
    * Article III, Section 6(b): Any member can be removed of his/her membership if the Board of Directors determines that the member has demonstrated a lack of integrity or unethical behavior. Anyone, including board members, can be removed of their membership.
    * Article IV, Section 2: Directors must be members at the time of their election and have been members for two years prior. If a current director did not or does not meet this requirement, he/she is disqualified from board service.
    * Article IV, Section 2: Removing a board candidate of his/her membership prior to election would automatically disqualify the candidate from board service.
    * Article IV, Section 2: Directors are required to adhere to the Board of Directors Code of Ethics. There are no exceptions and this requirement applies to all directors. Failing to adhere to the Code of Ethics disqualifies a director from board service.
    * Article IV, Section 7: Any director can resign at any time by notifying the chairperson.
    * Article IV, Section 8: Any director can be removed from office with or without cause by a majority vote of the voting members at any regular meeting or special meeting called for this purpose.
    * Article IV, Section 8: The Board of Directors can declare vacant any office of any director that is not qualified in accordance with the requirements that were in place when the director was elected.
    * Article IV, Section 18: Again, board members are explicitly required to adhere to the Code of Ethics.
    * Article VII: This article describes indemnification and insurance provisions for directors, officers, and employees.


Code of Ethics

    * Each board member shall "act with honesty and integrity."
    * Each board member shall "exercise loyalty to the IGDA, acting in the best interests of the organization and taking no action that would undermine or impede the activities of the IGDA."
    * Each board member shall "adhere to high standards of professional conduct, in particular regarding meeting attendance, preparedness, objectivity, mutual respect, courtesy, and candor."

[Fable]

I wonder if they could get around it by changing the word to "ledge". Or does he have trademarks on that too?

[MikeDee]

This petition, sign it:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/getlangdellout

A user from TDC created this petition so that Langdell gets the boot from the IGDA.

[Craig Stern]

Article IV, Section 8: Any director can be removed from office with or without cause by a majority vote of the voting members at any regular meeting or special meeting called for this purpose.

This is very similar to the way American corporations work by default. That doesn't surprise me. All we'd need to do is all become IGDA members.

[team_q]

I'm an IDGA member...

[Reiss]

Eclipse: Yeah, but I think Mobigame could be clever about it and just change the name to something like this

so there's still some kind of name recognition to the game that won awards edge => ledge and no confusion with Tim's awesome brand.

or to even further stick it to the man, EDGES.

[Derek]

Just wrote a big-ass post summing up the Langdell events thus far:

http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/06/09/tim-langdell-and-edge-part-two

Let me know if I'm missing anything or if anything is incorrect or could be clarified.

[AdamAtomic]

Great job!  I meant to do this last week and didn't find time, excellent summary.

[William Broom]

That's a really good summary, Derek. One problem I noticed was that you switched from 'Papazian' to 'Papizian'... I think Papazian is the correct spelling?

I also think that the bit apologizing to people who aren't interested in the story is rather unnecessary. Even the most excitable of readers wouldn't really be offended by having to scroll past 10cm of text that they're not interested in. You might as well preface every post about, say, an RPG with "Apologies to those who aren't interested in RPGs, you can just keep scrolling past."

By apologising for your post you might even scare people away because it implies that the story is boring and overly technical. When in actual fact I think very few people would find it boring, at the very least they would get a chuckle out of bits like "MIRRORS SPORE".