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[raiten]

Also note this comment over at fingergaming by somebody calling himself "Joe":

lol, you guys are hilarious. You seriously don’t know that trademark law requires a company to take action if someone else uses their trademark? And you are blaming this guy and his company for doing what the law requires him to do? And he’s taken action, what, four times in 30 years? Compared to, what. 400 times Apple have taken action to make sure no one uses the mark Apple on a computer or MP3 player? Man you guys are so far off base attacking him for this. Mobigame were in the wrong. Get over it.

http://fingergaming.com/2009/05/28/update-edge-pulled-over-alledged-trademark-infringement/

[raiten]

(for those who are skimmming the thread, you should compare the above quote to this one:)

Of course Edge is a protectable trademark, just like Apple. Of course you can protect common words, dickwads. Can you imagine how many hundreds of legal actions and threatening letters Apple must have written over the years to stop people using that word on computers and iPod rip-offs? And you are laying into this guy cos he took action four times in 30 years (and won every time ...)? Get a life. You guys dont seem to realize that the law requires Edge Games to take action against anyone who uses the mark EDGE without their permission. They dont have a choice they have to follow the law. That's the way trademarks work nimwits.

From "cheridavis" to "mopius" and "joe"! Tim Langdell has learnt his lesson. This time around nobody will find out it's him! Buwahahhahaha!!!... oh, wait...

[mopius]

I did what you probably did and looked at Mobygames (hmmmm why does that name sound familiar?) and while I couldnt find 180 games by EDGE all the ones I found were by indie developers. I couldnt find any earlier games by any of them and some of them went on to do some pretty amazing games later. So it didn't take a genius to work out EDGE probably funded those guys getting their start. But hey, maybe you are right. Maybe he is just a douchbag and none of the 180 games were by indie developers he gave a start to. It seemed logical to me, but I could be way off.

[raiten]

I did what you probably did and looked at Mobygames (hmmmm why does that name sound familiar?) and while I couldnt find 180 games by EDGE all the ones I found were by indie developers. I couldnt find any earlier games by any of them and some of them went on to do some pretty amazing games later. So it didn't take a genius to work out EDGE probably funded those guys getting their start. But hey, maybe you are right. Maybe he is just a douchbag and none of the 180 games were by indie developers he gave a start to. It seemed logical to me, but I could be way off.

haha, awesome retconning! marvel would be jealous.

[AdamAtomic]

He is credited for 3 games on Moby Games, and at least one is just a "special thanks."

so...mobygames credits him for at LEAST 2 different titles.  That's ALMOST 180.

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,181495/

LOL, one of the other 3 is a "special thanks", and Fairlight is credited "with assistance from", and equally credits both Tim and his wife Cheri.

So.

As far as I can tell he's developed ZERO games.  180 to go!  Who can find a game that Tim actually worked on??

[moi]

This is getting hilarious

[mopius]

It is indeed .. we were talking about how many games EDGE had done, not Langdell. Way to go confusing the thread man.

[raiten]

I did what you probably did and looked at Mobygames (hmmmm why does that name sound familiar?) and while I couldnt find 180 games by EDGE all the ones I found were by indie developers. I couldnt find any earlier games by any of them and some of them went on to do some pretty amazing games later. So it didn't take a genius to work out EDGE probably funded those guys getting their start. But hey, maybe you are right. Maybe he is just a douchbag and none of the 180 games were by indie developers he gave a start to. It seemed logical to me, but I could be way off.

Could you explain a bit further which games you were looking at, and how you could tell they were indie developers? I thought Darius+ was developed by Taito and not independent developers, but I could be wrong.

[moi]

Edge is a cosmic meme that materialized itself with tim langdell and the EDGE (tm) corporation but it actually exists since the dawn of the universe. It has inspired many great creators throughout human history.
Check this out.
It's crazy!

[SaintXi]

For me it is not the trademark protection per se, Edge Magazine seems right to protect their image from a game of the same name - more over it is the crazy cyber squatting of edgegames.com and the other Langdell sites pretending to have going concerns in so many areas just to bully legitimate businesses into maddening 'license deals' - the Craziness just oozes out of the 'movie rights' to the word, and the nutty 'MIRRORS a game by EDGE' rubbish on his site.
If I was Edge magazine I would want to disassociate as far as possible from this nut.

[c-foo peng]

It is indeed .. we were talking about how many games EDGE had done, not Langdell. Way to go confusing the thread man.

http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/edge/list-games/

So.... 12? Still not quite 180.

I wish Tim would stop referring to himself in the third person. It's quite childish.

[Mipe]

I would be very very careful when posting about Tim Langdell, his lawsuit finger is itchy. 

How about we make a tribute to such an important figure of the gaming by listing all the games he'd made personally? Perhaps that should give us some insight. After all the guy is a co-founder of the Academy of whatever, I hear they teach game development there.

I'm curious now.

Edit: Eh, is that the whole list, Sifu Peng? That seems far from 180. Maybe he just funded the rest?

[AaronAardvark]

Nah, dickheads, Future and Edge Games are business partners.

Hey, I'm glad someone finally caught on that we're dickheads!  Now we know these custom-made hats were worthwhile!

And what moron was saying Edge Games took their logo from Edge magazine?

It's pretty obvious.  It says right there in the post:

Is he somehow connected to Edge magazine?  Because he uses their exact logo, only douched up with bevels:

But you'll have to do a lot less namecalling and a lot more reasoned explanation as to how AdamAtomic is a moron for rightfully questioning the litigious practices of Edge Games, and noting the odd similarity between the Edge Games logo and the Edge magazine logo, and how Edge Games claims to be in cahoots with Edge Magazine, yet Edge Magazine makes no reference of Edge Games.  That's not moronic, that's studious.

What you fucktards don't seem to get is that obviously Edge and this guy Langdell are in the right

Obviously, that's why not a single person in these forums... I mean, that's why not a single one of us 'fucktards' has agreed with Edge Games.  Clearly, if none of us agrees and there's very little common knowledge out there on this guy Langdell or his company Edge Games, then him and his company are "obviously" in the right.

Pathetic. Of course Edge is a protectable trademark, just like Apple. Of course you can protect common words, dickwads.

I'm guessing a dickwad is a wad of used tissue paper used for wiping some excrement off of a dick?  Maybe Dick Arnold or something?  Maybe you just have typing-Tourettes Syndrom and have to keep writing curses.

Get a life.

You mean, like signing up at a random online forum where every member of that community disagrees with our opinions, then flaimbait them over and over?  Hey, then we might become rockstars like Langdell!  Good idea!

nimwits.

Ah, typing-Tourettes.  I think there are pills for that.  Cyanide might help.

[AdamAtomic]

11 of those 12 "edge" games are at least 20 years old, too.  Granted, MobyGames could be sorely out of date, but it's hard not to get a sense that somebody is trying to invent credibility for some douchebag who gets letigious when the economy is cyclically depressed.  When were his last suits filed?  The dot com bust?

[Mipe]

  Cyanide might help.

You best be referring to Cyanide and Happiness, lest you can expect a lawsuit for death threat or at least illiciting suicide.

You never know around a man who's been to courts more often than to his wife's garden.

[SaintXi]

Looks like the name stuck, and since then "The Edge" became "EDGE GAMES" to follow on with the mag's success - with the logo keeping pace to match rather than sticking to the games studio's original design.

Old Bobby

New Bobby

Apparently...

[AdamAtomic]

From MobyGames:

EDGE Games was founded in 1979 by Tim Langdell and was originally formed as Softek Software. Its main brandnames are EDGE and THE EDGE but it has published more than 180 games since 1979 under various brand names (Softek, Masters of the Game, Microselection, ACE, Softechnics). Originally based in London, England (Covent Garden), EDGE is the longest established and continuously operational British game company. While still maintaining offices in London, its headquarters are now in Los Angeles, California where Tim Langdell is still CEO and Chairman.

EDGE is most well known for such hit original games as Fairlight, Bobby Bearing and Brian Bloodaxe as well as its license games based on Marvel Comics characters and such licenses as Snoopy and Garfield. EDGE Magazine was published under license from EDGE by Future Publishing and remains one of the most popular game magazines today.

According to Mobygames, the following companies have produced the following games:

Edge: 12 games
Softek: 12 games
Masters of the Game: 0 games
Microselection: 0 games
ACE: 2 games
Softechnics: 0 games

I didn't cross-check Edge and Softek, but let's pretend that in the last 30 years, The Edge in its various forms has developed and/or published a total of 26 games.  That's a little under 1 game per year, and as far as Mobygames is concerned Tim himself had zero personal involvement in any of them.

Also, of interest:

http://www.mobygames.com/company/edge/logos

Supports my theory that he traded Future a new logo in exchange for not flipping out in court, as he signed the deal with Future in 93 as well!

Tim has worked on zero games.  The Edge has worked on, arguably, 26 games, none of which were released in the last decade.

[Mipe]

Ugh, their logo went worse and worse!

[AdamAtomic]

Also for the sake of posterity, a screenshot of the MIRRORS a new game from EDGE logo:



Not to be confused, of course, with:



Finally, to take things to absurd new heights:



 

[Gorgoo]

One thing confuses me about the whole situation, and I'll admit I haven't done too much research on it, but has Tim Langdell actually ever sued and won a case over his trademark of the word EDGE?

Maybe I missed something, but it seems like all of these were settlements or compromises made by groups that didn't want to go to court, and the one case I could find where he did actually sue someone was the U2 case where the claims were apparently dismissed. Even Mobigame's EDGE seemed to be taken down more because of iTunes being (unfortunately but understandably) cautious than any legal precedent.

Maybe I'm wrong, though, and he has actually won in court a few times, but it seems at first glance that most of these are cases of people conceding a name to avoid court battles.