The District Court for the Northern District of California has refused to offer a preliminary injunction against Electronic Arts in a lawsuit around trademark infringement brought by Tim Langdell's EDGE Games.
Saying that EDGE "failed to establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits" of the case, Judge William Alsup denied the motion to stop Electronic Arts from using its Mirror's Edge trademark to market and sell the game of the same name, according to court documents obtained by Gamasutra.
The judge claims significant problems with EDGE's case, including "compelling evidence that there was no bona fide use of the 'EDGE' trademark between 1989 and 2003," and that "even after 2003, the evidence that plaintiff had been making bona fide use of the 'EDGE' mark in commerce is suspect."
The judge also grants credence to evidence presented by EA that EDGE presented doctored box art to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to fraudulently establish its right to 'EDGE' and related trademarks.
"The record contains numerous items of evidence that plaintiff wilfully committed fraud against the USPTO in obtaining and/or maintaining registrations for many of the asserted 'EDGE' marks, possibly warranting criminal penalties if the misrepresentations prove true," the judge wrote.
Even if Langdell's rights to the 'EDGE' name bear out, though, the judge found that EA's use of the word in the Mirror's Edge title was unlikely to cause the "market confusion" or "irreparable harm" necessary to sustain the trademark infringement claim. "It is an open question whether plaintiff's business activities legitimately extend beyond trolling various gaming-related industries for licensing opportunities," the judge wrote.
Late last year, Electronic Arts filed a related complaint challenging EDGE's right to its claimed trademarks -- and this lawsuit was part of continued conflict on the matter.
Langdell has drawn controversy for his vigorous defense of his rights to the 'EDGE' trademark in various elements of the gaming sphere. The game industry veteran stepped down from the IGDA's board of directors last year.
I could've sworn that the term "the mirror's edge" is a pre-existing idiom to begin with. It's not like Langdell invented the word "edge". And on top of that, using Langdell's own logic, wouldn't U2's "Edge" be able to sue HIM? I'm with the judge on this one. I think Langdell is just trying to create publicity for himself.
"The record contains numerous items of evidence that plaintiff wilfully committed fraud against the USPTO in obtaining and/or maintaining registrations for many of the asserted 'EDGE' marks, possibly warranting criminal penalties if the misrepresentations prove true," the judge wrote.
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Oh SNAP!
You know your legal case against EA is in trouble when a judge comes right out and says you "willfully committed fraud against the USPTO".
If I were Langdell, I'd forget the case against EA, and start worrying about being sued by the USPTO! (Unless committing FRAUD against the USPTO isn't considered a crime. IANAL, but I would think that's a bad thing to do.)
EA could have simply replied "It's too late, the game has been out for more than a year", that would have been enough to get the injunction denied.
But instead, they dug into Langdell's registrations, examined the fake or photoshopped magazine and games covers he submitted, found the originals, researched the claims, exposed all the frauds...
They're not just protecting their interests, they want to destroy this guy.
Actually, this work was done by the IGDA members, angry at Langdell for sueing EDGE (the iPhone game).
EA took all the data that the angry IGDA and TIG people collected, and sent to the judge. There are a blog with extensive data, including that Timmy is convicted of stalking, and has a restraint order, and that in his attempts to maintain his trademark with "new" games like Mythora, some of the "cover art" of his, were actually stolen stuff from DeviantArt.
I will see if I find the link to the blog, then I post here.
Kyle, he means the earlier non-internet meme version of the word. It's trolling as one does from a moving fishing boat. leaving the line out there to just see what you catch, picking up anything you can get.
It's so weird to find myself hoping that a huge faceless corporation will crush the little guy, but I guess Langdell brings out the worst in all of us.
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Oh SNAP!
You know your legal case against EA is in trouble when a judge comes right out and says you "willfully committed fraud against the USPTO".
If I were Langdell, I'd forget the case against EA, and start worrying about being sued by the USPTO! (Unless committing FRAUD against the USPTO isn't considered a crime. IANAL, but I would think that's a bad thing to do.)
But instead, they dug into Langdell's registrations, examined the fake or photoshopped magazine and games covers he submitted, found the originals, researched the claims, exposed all the frauds...
They're not just protecting their interests, they want to destroy this guy.
EA took all the data that the angry IGDA and TIG people collected, and sent to the judge. There are a blog with extensive data, including that Timmy is convicted of stalking, and has a restraint order, and that in his attempts to maintain his trademark with "new" games like Mythora, some of the "cover art" of his, were actually stolen stuff from DeviantArt.
I will see if I find the link to the blog, then I post here.
I think he means Langdell has to go live under a bridge now.
http://tinysubversions.com/Order%20on%20Motion%20for%20Preliminary%20Injunction.
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