App-alling Behaviour?
Indievision, the website and organisation of developers that aid other developers has been trying to address Apple in regards to their position in the whole Edge debacle. They originally contacted Apple back in November ’09 in hope to get some direct feedback or even action against the claims of Tim Langdell in both the case of Edge from Mobigame and Killer Edge Racing by Nalin Sharma.
Fast-forward to now and Indivision has made an attempt to address Apple in the case of EA’s release of Mirror’s Edge on the newly launched Apple iPad device- the big sister to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The situation we have is that Edge by Mobigame is still missing from the App store thanks to Langdell’s last demand for removal. We here at ChaosEdge, like many others believe that this is wrong and as a result of the actions have lost Mobigame and Nalin Sharma a great deal of money in lost revenue and just as important, removed the chance for video game fans around the world the chance to play their creation.
EA have recently released their title Mirror’s Edge on the iPad app store, and is set to release it on the iPhone in the near future. So we now have a game on the App Store featuring the word Edge, which contradicts the argument made against both Mobigame and Nalin. Is this just a matter of time before Langdell reaches for his quill and writes a letter of tall claims to Apple and they dutifully remove Mirror’s Edge from the App store? Or is it a case of big powerful EA gets the golden handshake, while small fry Mobigame and Nalin Sharma get swept under the rug? That’s exactly what Indivision is asking Apple in their letter and that’s what we want to know.
We’ll post the results here when they appear.
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Chaos Edge
Please help us to put a stop to this trademark bully!
ChaosEdge 
To be fair, who’s to say this is simply down to Apple having not been served with a take-down order by Langdell, or EA/Apple currently flinging arguments back and forth before Apple’s semi-inevitable “sort it out among yourselves” app removal?
Also, there’s no way in hell Apple will answer the letter.
He’s back:
Click to access ttabvue-92051465-CAN-19.pdf
He is indeed! You can read my take on this here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21050191&postcount=433
I may be talking through my hat here, but I suspect this is not a case of one law for the rich/big v one for the poor/small.
In the mobigame one, Langdell did have evidence – he was the holder of a relevant registered trademark and there was at the time no litigated dispute that he was entitled to it.
In the EA one the relevant trademark is under active litigation between the two parties.
So far as Apple is concerned, in the first instance they are upholding the rights of a trademark owner (which in *general* is a good thing no matter what we think of Langdell) while in the second it is avoiding prejudging a litigated dispute between the parties (which is also a good thing because Apple isn’t a courtroom).
Of course, this does give rise to a rich/poor divide because of the cost and risks of litigation – but really that isn’t Apple’s fault.
EDGE is back on the US App Store!!
Also the UK store as well. Plus a bonus cheap weekend price.
It’s still 4.99 in the US, but who the fuck cares. Totally worth it!