Poor Mobigame. They've not had a day of rest, and have had a heck of a dog fight trying to keep their retro-based, multi-award winning 3D puzzler Edge, on the App Store. Read that Tim? Multi-award winning. Edge is loved by many, becoming a App Store hit overnight - so, as you can imagine, it was a shock to both Mobigame and the App Store crowd when Apple decided to pull it. But Why? I hear you ask. Well, a few months back Apple pulled Edge, and Mobigame became locked into a legal on-going battle against this man - Tim Langdell.
Claiming to own the trademark and worldwide copyright over the word 'Edge,' ever since he registered his computer publishing house 'Edge Games' back in the 80's, called upon Apple to put a stop to what Langdell described as "copyright infringement". See, the thing is, it's not the first time he's done this. In fact, after this case came to light, various well known news sources started scouring Langdell's numerous websites, and found he actually makes a killing off threatening companies with lawsuits over this same trademark.
As described by David Papazian of Mobigame, back in May of this year ..
“We have legal issues with a man named Tim Langdell, and if you already asked yourself why Soul Edge (the Namco game) was called Soul Blade and later Soulcalibur in the US, you have your answer.” (via Fingergaming)
The situation got so bad that the International Game Developers Association got involved, asking for Langdell's removal. It's not just Mobigame that have had trouble though. Cult of Mac in November reported that 'Killer Edge,' a racing title from independent Nalin Sharma, was to also fall victim to Langdell's copyrighting exploits. In fact, despite Killer Edge being released in 2005, Langdell reportely tried to register both Killer Edge Racing and Killer Edge Racers. Is this a sign of a man playing fairly? No.
If the fact that Langdell seems to think he owns the rights to one commonly-used word across an entire consumer focused industry isn't enough to get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, he also seems to have acquired each web address relating to the word Edge.
Edge (the game) actually returned to the store about a week back, as would you believe it - Edge (you can't blame them for trying), and I think I'm right in saying it was up on the store for a matter of days, and then surprise surprise Apple pulled it. Again. Today though, it's returned. Back in May Langdell told Mobigame that he'd drop the claims if they were prepared to change the game's name to Edgy. The same week, Langdell filed a trademark on the very same name, and of course the claim was to cover 'Computer gaming software' - figures.
It's unclear if Langdell did actually win the legal battle, or if this will be the end of the shenanigans for Mobigame. One thing is for sure, and it's that Edge is back on the App Store - as EDGY.
