Hedge Your Bets

EA’s stance on the matter

News has spread fast, like a lit torch to the dried twigs of the EDGE Games trademark tree, the Internet is abuzz with the word that EA has filed against Tim Langdell and his trademark business.

If for some reason you’ve been blissfully unaware of this startling news, here’s a quick recap of what’s just happened.

EA and EA DICE are asking that the trademarks “THE EDGE”, “GAMER’S EDGE”, “EDGE”, “CUTTING EDGE” and “EDGE” (second registration covering a different range of goods), held by Edge Games Inc, be cancelled.

EA explain their interest in the “MIRROR’S EDGE” mark and say that since September 2008 Edge Games has been continuously threatening to sue over an alleged violation of their “family of registered EDGE marks.”

They explain that Edge Games Inc is the successor company to Edge Interactive Media Inc, and point out Langdell’s continuous role as CEO of both companies. They also point out that the EDGE marks were previously owned by Edge Interactive Media Inc.

They then go over each of the marks they want cancelled, and

(a) claim the mark has been abandoned
(b) claim that Edge lied to the USPTO about the dates the marks were first used, under penalty of perjury, offering supporting evidence (a lot of it the doctored evidence of use which Edge submitted to the USPTO and the amateur internet sleuths uncovered)
(c) claim that they just know that Edge lied to the USPTO about the dates the marks were first used, because they are EA, and they know what is going on in the games industry
(d) claim that the continued registration of the mark harms EA’s interests

Finally, they make two claims for relief:

(1) the EDGE family of marks should be cancelled because they were abandoned by Edge Interactive Media Inc. Also, the marks were abandoned before they were assigned to Edge Games Inc, making the assigment invalid, so actually they’re abandoned marks not even owned by Edge Games Inc!
(2) the EDGE family of marks should be cancelled because Edge knowingly lied to get them registered in the first place.

If you fancy reading the document in all its legal glory, then put on your best Phoenix Wright hat and delve away.

Even with the might of EA, this obviously isn’t the end, it’s more the beginning of the end. For now it’s time for Tim Langdell and his mighty empire to attempt to step up to the challenge and fight back.

Indeed it seems that Langdell has already started in his quest to forge out evidence in backing up his claims to the many registered trademarks in dispute. The Edge Games website has been joyfully sprayed with gushings of (TM)’s and (R)’s in effort to claim ownership, much in the same way a dog would declare a mail box to be his territory, Langdell’s growling and showing teeth at this new threat.

We like to keep tabs on the changes at EDGE Games, as sometimes it seems that holding on to a piece of history can help highlight current events. Take this Mirrors pre-order page from a few weeks back for example:

Prepare to be amazed (We’re still fully prepared by the way), and now see this latest version with it’s lashings of (TM) and (R) marks.

A frail hope in stamping down valid use of the marks… It continues across the whole catalog, generated sentences of pure guff in hope to pump life back in to the dead corpse.

There’ll be little surprise to see images such as those above be used by EDGE Games in their fight against EA. Retrofitting information has clearly been a lead tactic in their arsenal for a long time now. EA have spotted that in their statement linking to the aforementioned mock ups and cock up showing of the Edge magazine mock up of June 2004.

At ChaosEdge, we’re going to keep vigilant and open eyed about this, there’s little doubt that over the coming months EDGE Games under control from their boss Tim Langdell will do what they can to keep up the fight. Without the raft of TMs behind them, they have little in the way of business, and for a company that’s kept up this game for nigh on 30 years, surely the end won’t come so easily.

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Speaking of business, we’d like to thank you for all your comments and mentions regarding the recent Mythora article. With such a good response it was clear that we’d have to follow it up with another one.

RACERS being the next title out of the stocks, we were excitedly waiting for the 9th, Sept, 2009 release date, but to our horror, we found that come the 9th, the pre-order page for RACERS changed to SOLD OUT. Clearly the hundreds, nay thousands, possibly millions of gamers had been virtually queuing up and purchased the game before we managed to bag one.

It’s clear that the game must be incredible, gripping players from the moment of install, as not one review has appeared on the internet. That’s right, not one person has managed to pull themselves away from playing this incredible game in order to post a few blessed words on a blog, news site or otherwise.

Of course we kid, don’t for one second believe that RACERS was released and that anyone has been playing it.

That’s a strong statement to make, how do we know for a fact that RACERS didn’t sell out to a bating crowed of rabid gamers?

Well. To buy an EDGE Game, you have to visit the EDGE Games Store, you can’t buy this shit in the shops people. Games are ordered online and with each order you’re given a unique order number.

Here’s an example of our Mythora purchase.

Notice the Order Number is 1001, dated on 1st, Sept, 2009. That makes it the first order on the Edge Games Store. “Surely you mean the 1001th order?” Nope, shops tend to work in four digit order numbers starting at 1001 and stepping up from there. Want more proof? Ok.

EDGE Games use the SmartCart system, so as a test we created a new account and launched our very own store, offering make believe items at a fine price (sound familiar?). We placed a few orders, keeping an eye on the order number, which sure enough started out at 1001 and stepped up to 1002 (As seen in the image above) and so on, thus proving that the Mythora order was the first made on the EDGE Games store.

So what of the second order, and what’s its significance here? Well, we’re a greedy bunch and we couldn’t help but take more offerings from EDGE Games, so a second order was made on the 10th, Sept, 2009. This time for a second copy of Mythora and a copy of Bobby Bearing for mobile phone (just can’t get enough of that gaming goodness).

Here’s a copy of the invoice to prove it.

Also the PayPal Invoice which clearly shows the date of purchase.

Note the order number 1002, the second ever order placed on the EDGE Games store on the 10th, Sept, 2009. That date needs to be reiterated as it’s important here: 10th, Sept, 2009. The second order was placed some 9 days after our original; that’s 9 whole days of ZERO orders on the website. Now some of you may have clicked at the significance of the dates, but for those who have not, here it is.

9th, Sept, 2009, the launch date of RACERS, the very game that on the EDGE Games store the had sold out before the 10th, Sept, 2009. A title that had somehow sold out between order numbers 1001 and 1002. Not even a tough act, but an impossible one.

That’s the proof we have to show that RACERS was never released, there’s no gamers playing it and it’s exactly why there are no news sites putting up reviews of it.