Cybernet Systems v. Edge Games Documents

By: Derek Yu

On: July 18th, 2009

To the Tim Langdell/Edge Games page I’ve added links to documents pertaining to the Cybernet Systems v. Edge Games case (which is still ongoing, despite the fact that Cybernet’s Edge of Extinction has been inactive since 2002). These documents were obtained through PACER, a service that provides online access to court records. Anyone can get an account and the data is considered public record.

Among these documents are emails sent by Tim to Cybernet, as well as various exhibits submitted to the court by both parties. One of these exhibits, shown above right, is a really curious thing – to me it looks like a very amateurish mock-up of an Edge Magazine cover (the real issue from July 2004 is shown on the left). I’m wondering what it’s actually supposed to be, because in “Answer to Complaint, Counter-Claim, and Affirmative Defenses,” it states that the exhibit is a sample “of the EDGE brand as used in connection with computer hardware in various formats.”

The rest of my opinions are hidden behind this jump:

Tim, of course, uses his connections with the game industry (including the IGDA) to help prove his case, although he fails to mention how those connections were made. Is it becoming clearer how this has all worked out for him? If I were to put together a satirical timeline of Tim’s history in the game industry, it might look something like this:

Tim Langdell, Edge Games

80’s – Tim Langdell registers the trademark “Edge” and humanity dies a little. Various unwitting developers produce games for Edge Games and some of them even get paid. Tim eventually ~~flees~~ moves to America, the land of ~~lawsuits~~ opportunity.

90’s – Edge Games produces games about Snoopy and Garfield, the last creative properties it will not obtain through litigation. Using the credentials Tim built on the bloody, flayed backs of honest developers, Tim enters the entertainment industry and joins the boards of various organizations, such as the AIAS and the IGDA, and tarnishes their names with his very presence. Meanwhile, there are many legal threats to be made, and many more “licensees” to be had!

00’s – With the dawning of a new millennium, Tim’s throne of skulls grows ever bigger. Each new creator he coerces and each new organization stupid enough to have him as a member becomes another “exhibit” he can wield in court. But in his hubris he makes a vital mistake by editing his own Wikipedia entry, which ends up reading like a biography of Charlemagne as written by a hyperactive graduate student.

And the rest, as they say, would be internet history. But hey, like I’ve said before, keep in mind that these are just my opinions.

The documents, however, are very real and are now available for you to look at (pdf format). And IGDA members, it looks like you may have some recourse. Put your membership to good use!

Thanks to Brandon at Offworld for tracking down the July 2004 issue of Edge Magazine.

Posted in Business, Community, Developers | Tags: Edge, EdgeGames, TimLangdell

O

What the fuck is a Mirror’s Spore anyway.
THE EDGE FROM PIZZA HUT

A double whammy against spore and mirrors edge!

COMING SOON FROM EDGE GAMES:
METAL EDGE of FINAL SOLID!
GoGo Robot

That post is in violation of so many trademarks. Don’t let Tim see it.

Girlfriend gonna get paid!
http://stefanomega.wordpress.com/ Stefano

Wow. He has actually been managing to claim ownership of a common, everyday-use word for almost tree decades!! It’s scary to think that the law will actually listen and in some cases even endorse this kind of claim.

If he started using all this energy to actually create something, instead of Smeagoling other people’s rings, he could probably be a very, very productive man.

Again: Wow.
Hyudra

Reading some of the documents, you really don’t get to like Tim any more.

Under the Initial Complaint filed by Cybernet Systems, Page 11:

“We are sorry your client did not wish to settle on the amicable terms we proposed, and that your client is happy at the certainty that it will now be facing substantial costs and fees just to get this issue resolved in full knowledge that the outcome will likely be much the same anyway. But that was your client’s decision to make, and as you indicated in your letter today, they have made it. To be clear, should your client change its mind at some later date and wish to re-enter negotiation for an amicable settlement, then we shall require not less than an attractive offer to compensate us for your client’s infringing use to-date, together with full reimbursement of all costs and fees we incur in filing the Petition to Cancel…” (etc.)
http://meyermike.com ExciteMike

Even if he’s as terrible as we all suspect, how is a smear campaign an appropriate response? Maybe if you were calling for a lawyer to help Mobigames out or doing some kind of fundraiser this would be useful.

Snarkier-than-it-should-be comment: Maybe you should get a separate wehatetimlangdell.com? New evidence of how much of a jerk he is probably doesn’t belong on The Indie Game (and sometimes pie) Source?
Barry Burtoni

Shame Tim’s mock-up cover is just a mock-up. What a great issue it would have been, especially with news of those EDGE Game PCs!
O

ExciteMike: raising awareness about the guy is one thing we can do to counter his scare tactic.

Putting out a call for more information about just what he’s been up to before doing anything major is a pragmatic decision too.

I really wouldn’t call this a smear campaign, either. I understand the confusion though; the guy is a shit sandwich.
Gutter

What I don’t understand is that Warner Bros deemed necessary to license the word for him for The Edge (the movie).

And then, he use it on his site as if he had anything to do with it.

But why would they license the damn word from him?
Nicholas Moon

Gutter,

WB has lots of money. Easier to just pay the money than fight the suit.
Heres-a-thought

Dear Derek,

Thanks for pointing out how much a dickweed Tim Langdell is but even better, for exposing what a truly wretched human being and consumate and habitual “Sewer” (ie. Sue-er) he is. This guy needs to go down like the titanic. This is the type of person that takes everything that America stands for (very little these days – although slowly recovering it’s humanity thanks to Obama), and twists life and living into a perverse reality which is only made worse by the system (legal, technological, etc.) that allows this stupid shit to go on… Having the ability to do these things and act this way is not part of a democracy, it’s far more like a fascist dictatorship (again, a perversion of what the average american really wants and/or needs). Tim is a prime example of why too much freedom is a bad thing. Freedom to harass and intimidate to the point of bullying, he’s got everyone’s lunch money and he’s getting away with it – and will continue to do so until someone (or more likely – some group) takes this asshole down a few notches.

People really need to unite and fight this sort of bullshit, not just Tim Langdell, but all of the Tim Langdells’ out there.

I’m pissed because I’m tired of seeing this sort of shit happen everyday. There are plenty of people who are jobless and even worse, homeless, with families who have extremely little – even if they’ve worked their asses off their whole lives… Then guys like Tim Langdell come along, who do next to nothing (in terms of constructing, creating, delivering, serving, or helping – real work) and live high off of what other people are actually working hard for. He’s collecting on other peoples sweat, blood, tears, and most importantly, time – of which there is no taking back.

This stuff has to stop. This is a huge problem (probably globally) but it’s an American trend where the rich get richer in this way and the poor and working class get shafted. The illusion of freedom might be better than nothing at all, but what does it say when you’re living in a tiny house and paying your own mortgage on top of someone elses rent to live in a luxury condo.

It doesn’t make sense, and it hasn’t made sense for all these years…

I just want to make sense of all this and understand how this shit is fair or better yet, why we (the average working class) allow this stuff to happen? We outnumber “them” (the greedy mongers who haven’t actually done anything but thrive off of our productiveness). It would all be well and fine if someone started something from the ground up and earned their way to the top, but guys like Tim (and there are plenty like him) have literally done nothing – zilch, zip, nadda, zero, and yet – he has more than you or me (I’m speaking in general – some of you might actually be rich, but that may or may not be because you or your parents worked hard for what they have – this asshole and the many like him, did not!)

Belly aching doesn’t help, but neither does violence… again, I just want to understand this situation and make sense of it – because it really does not make any sense to me at all. It just makes me feel sick and have a lack of faith in my fellow man (and woman) kind.
FISH

i love you, derek.
Mr. Podunkian

as much as it’s annoying that this kind of thing is happening, this is about as sensationalist as sensationalist writing goes in the indie gaming news community.

i’m pretty sure we’ve all got the idea that tim langdell is a bad man, take him off of the IGDA, etc. by now. it’s beginning just to sound like preaching at this point!
RobF

It’s keeping the git in the spotlight, Mr. P.

That’s precisely what’s needed here.
Nicholas Moon

Mr. P,

I was reading that IGDA thread, and the problem is that a lot of people still don’t seem to care. He hasn’t been taken off the board yet.

I think part of what Derek is doing is for Langdell’s “career” after IGDA. Removing him the board won’t stop his business practices, but, as Rob suggests, forcing him into the spotlight might.
Mr. Podunkian

yes, but half of this entire post is a tim langdell fanfiction, and the other half of the post is not worth its own post. like i said, i think we get the point, we don’t like this guy, but writing a post every time tim finds a lost sock in the dryer? these posts feel more like a call to arms than anything else, with a lot of speculation that i’m sure a lot of people will read into as fact. keep it on the dedicated tim langdell page! that’s what it’s for, isn’t it?
RobF

What Tim does might be annoying to you, but it’s utterly ruinous to others, man.

It’s not about “not liking him” or telling people “not to like him” it’s about bringing these practices out into a *very* public light and if that takes repeated posts, then so be it.

Or should we all just stay quiet, tuck it away on a little web page and hope someone stumbles upon it via google?
RobF

Nicholas, yup. The thing is with the IGDA stuff – it’s an IGDA problem at its heart (although with the kerfuffle over Tim this whole thing does have a side effect of exposing its impotence as an org).

Tim gets removed from the IGDA. Huzzah! Now what? He’s still free to continue his offensive action against developers just now without the implied backing of an org. So, nothing *really* changes.

Derek’s focus on the long term is absolutely the right way to tackle this. Keeping the spotlight on Tim and keeping the news coming rather than just tucking it away keeps the issue current.

The more people who aware of how little ground Langdell has to stand on, the more his behaviour is marginalised, the more of us (yes, all of us) stand a chance in the future should anything like this happen to any of us.

This time it’s Tim, next time it might be someone else, but if it’s shown that no-one will stand for this shit, well, go figure…

Or in short, it’s pretty important y’know.
falsion

That wasn’t his point. This is doing a lot more harm than it is doing good. A lot more harm to us, not Tim.

If you want to write an article about him, just show the facts. We all hate this guy. But that’s not the point we should be making.

Rather than being like, here is Douchebag McDouche at it again, causing the utter downfall of humanity enslaving indie gaming as we know it, why not INSTEAD just present the facts and let people come to their own conclusion.

There is more than enough about this guy for people to know he’s a pretty bad guy. The sensationalism does nothing but diminishes this fact and makes us look like a bunch of rabid conspiracy theorist loonies.

Pretend you’re reading this for the first time and you don’t know who Tim Langdell is. This article contains some facts, then goes off on a tirade. If someone from outside of their site were to read this, they’d see this article as biased. And that is not what we ought to be doing.
Nicholas Moon

I think Podunk and falsion make good arguments, actually.

The truth, though, is that this is an indie gaming blog, and not the one with the highest readership at that, I’d wager (though it is my favorite, and the only one I frequent).

Mr. Yu isn’t really a journalist. It would be fantastic if gaming journalists took their jobs seriously enough to actually investigate this sort of thing, but they don’t. Actually, it’s probably because they are serious about keeping their jobs. Anyone who keeps up with gaming journalism has seen what happens to those who do not cow tow to corporate mandate.

In the end, it is left to amateurs, such as Mr. Yu, to do this work. I don’t think Derek has stepped over any lines, especially given the lax standards of blogging. He hasn’t really written as much about Langdell as is being suggested. Still, the mere fact that the point has been brought up suggests it could be, whether or not it has any basis. And as I said, there is some truth to the criticism.

Perhaps Derek could hold off on the investigation for a while. We still don’t know what the result of the IGDA business will be. Once that comes to an end, there will be more to the story.
RobF

Except it’s not playing out like that at all is it?

People *are* sitting up and taking notice of this and they’re not writing it off as a bunch of loons griping.

So, no, it’s not doing more harm than good, quite the opposite.
Anonymous

It’s a shame it’s bothering people, but something has to be done. It’s got this bad because it’s gone ignored for the past 20/30 years.

And don’t forget, this is a very real indie problem. A certain developer of a quite lovely mobile game got their ass handed to them Langdell style, over a f*cking word. It might not be possible to stop him, but he’s someone who should go down in gaming history as a bigger jackarse than the Gizmondo guy. Preaching to the choir for sure, but niche media needs to keep making a stink of it’s issues for big media to take notice.
falsion

The earlier posts about this actually presented facts before opinions, and tried to make a case against Tim rather than just saying he’s a jackass. That’s how it even got any attention beyond this site. But now more and more this is doing the exact opposite.
Derek

Hey, Mr. Podunkian/falsion-

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, guys.

1. I’m trying not to post unless there’s something genuinely interesting to post about. In this case, I wanted to point people to the documents I put up, which I feel are important. Especially the magazine mock-up, which I think requires some explaining on Tim’s part (not to us, per se, but to the courts). These may not be interesting to you, but they could be very interesting to people involved in the disputes. Or useful for others trying to put two and two together.

2. You have a good point about the timeline, although it’s pretty obviously my own opinion and a joke, and I think that, despite the satire (because of it?), it paints a relatively accurate portrait of events as I see it. I’ll hide it behind a jump if it makes people uncomfortable, but I think it’s well within the boundaries of what we do here at TIGSource (which, granted, not everyone is appreciative of ;).
Derek

This update on the Kotaku page:

“Update: From Cult of Mac’s Craig Grannell comes word that Mobigames’ Papazian has talked with Bobby Bearing’s actual developers, Robert and Trevor Figgins, and they claim they retain the rights to the game. Langdell, they assert, was just the publisher. Further, those two are said to believe that Mobigames’ Edge is not a game similar to Bobby Bearing. If this is true, it makes Langdell’s claim even more despicable, although we are talking about a contract they had (if any) more than 20 years ago, at a time when such things were a lot less formal than they are now.”
namuol

All mutual hatred for ‘Edge Games’ aside, how is this Independent Gaming News?

I understand you want to harness the community to get this guy off the IGDA, but maybe there should just be a notice near the top of the page or something…
Hyudra

I have to side with Derek on this one. As a daily reader of Tigsource, I find this some of the most interesting news posted in the last while. I hope it continues.

Derek said it well in the previous update – This is something crucially important to the indie dev, because this kind of behavior, left alone, is hurting independent games, and will continue to hurt it.

I have to wonder about the magazine cover. If we are under the impression that Tim Langdell is falsifying evidence (ie. Attempting to show the strength of Edge as a brand by creating a fake magazine cover promising a review for an Edge computer), is there any way to contact the court, or one of the lawyers involved?
MachN.

I’m sorry but I loved this post by Heres-a-thought so much that I just have to quote some of it because I agreed with it entirely:

“Thanks for pointing out how much a dickweed Tim Langdell is but even better, for exposing what a truly wretched human being and consumate and habitual â€œSewerâ€ (ie. Sue-er) he is. This guy needs to go down like the titanic. This is the type of person that takes everything that America stands for (very little these days – although slowly recovering itâ€™s humanity thanks to Obama), and twists life and living into a perverse reality which is only made worse by the system (legal, technological, etc.) that allows this stupid shit to go onâ€¦ Having the ability to do these things and act this way is not part of a democracy, itâ€™s far more like a fascist dictatorship (again, a perversion of what the average american really wants and/or needs). Tim is a prime example of why too much freedom is a bad thing. Freedom to harass and intimidate to the point of bullying, heâ€™s got everyoneâ€™s lunch money and heâ€™s getting away with it – and will continue to do so until someone (or more likely – some group) takes this asshole down a few notches.”

All I can say is — Agreed!

And yes, this news may not ONLY be Indie Game Development news, it IS much larger than that, but it does apply to the community and in fact all people who are tired of this sort of thing.

Keep it up!
O

Hey Pod, considering how you usually go about things, it’s pretty surprising to hear that kind of criticism from you. Not that I wouldn’t ever call you a hypocrite or anything!
http://www.mile222.com aeiowu

if you’re a member of the IGDA, sign this petition to get real action rolling:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=68SOsjTK_2f9qJvOQ_2b2Zw7_2fA_3d_3d
Cliftor

Not cool, O. That’s water under the bridge, leave it there. P didn’t do anything in bad faith in the first place.

And I agree Mr Langdell is a shitburger with extra fries, but I agree that it only hurts TIGs with stuff like that timeline.

The documents and explanation of them were GREAT, and that’s exactly the kind of reporting I want to see on this case.

The rest of it, yeah, it’s a joke, it’s satire, but it’s so low brow that it’s just a stain on us, giving currency to anyone who wants to paint you or any of us as a bunch of immature blogger brats.

IMO, the discourse needs to sound professional if you want the professionals to listen. Thanks for hiding it under the jump.
O

Fuck you, Pod’s definitely the last person who should be criticising someone’s attitude.

He’s one of my favourite klik personalities from the shit old days for doing the stuff that makes him a hypocrite for saying something like that.

As for Derek, I probably wouldn’t be doing things the same way, but who gives a shit. STAY ON TARGET. Trying to create drama around *how* one man is handling the issue is only going to confuse *what* the issue is, and it’s an important one.

Also, bullshit. I don’t know what planet you think “professionals” are from, but this site’s full of ’em and we all know what douchebag means.
Malasdair

This is absolutely relevant Indie Gaming news, as this is The Indie Gaming Source. A man who is claiming to be in support of independent video games is, in fact, attempting to enforce a specious (as far as I can tell, given that I am Goddamned Into Video Games and have never heard of his bullshit company) trademark by issuing legal threats to independent video game developers. The community needs to be informed of this.
Ezuku

This is relevant indy gaming news, and thus this is appropriate.

But I would like more objectivity. Tim’s a dodgy enough guy without needing to embellish, and doing that just makes you see unreliable; just let the facts speak for themselves. That trademark of “Edgy” in particular is really *really* dodgy.

I don’t see how he manages to get all the money for this sort of legal action anyway. Admitedly, didn’t some of his companies go bankrupt, but still, seems like he’s still rolling in cash to be able to do things like that?
nikki

“I donâ€™t see how he manages to get all the money for this sort of legal action anyway” , he asks for it, by mail !!
PF

What this reminds me of is the famous Monster Cable company. In fact, Tim Langdell is *less* of an insane litigator than this company, so be thankful: they managed to trademark the word “Monster” and proceeded to sue anyone at all who used it. One example: Monster Mini Golf, who was sued (though they, happily, got off) for using this every day word. Don’t think Tim is some isolated phenomenon, it’s happened before and since.
Mr. Podunkian

o — while i’m going to concede that i was a bit of an asshole back in the day, it’s an image i’ve been trying to shake off, and i hope that knowledge will validate my thoughts on this issue (and hopefully any other opinions i have on any other things, ever)

derek — reading through the other comments, i guess i understand why it’s something that’s still a bit relevant. i guess what i really intended to say is that my opinion on the posts is that it borders on fearmongering.

i agree, these lawsuits are frivolous, but to portray them such that they are a major obstacle in ‘creative innovation’ sounds like a big logical jump. langdell maybe a crook, but he’s no hitler.
Mr. Podunkian

i forgot to add, however, that these are just my thoughts, and i’m not trying to criticize your writing/journalism/etc.
Paul Eres

as an aside, and out of curiosity, there was a claim above by nicholas moon that this is not the most popular blog for indie games — i don’t know if that’s true or not, but i can’t really think of any other ones. the two other blogs i know of specifically dedicated to indie games are play this thing and tim’w blog — both of which have less traffic (if alexa ratings and average comment count are indicative). so are there some other indie game focused blogs with an even larger audience i’m unaware of? things like rock paper shotgun and destructoid don’t count because they cover games in general (and indie games sometimes), not primarily indie games. if there’s any i’m missing i’d love to read them though.
cactus

The Langdell story is fascinating. Keep posting about this idiot. Nothing will happen if people keep quiet about it.
fortcrusher

wow so far from what I read in the past days being a ‘trademark troll’ still makes you a troll and pulls emotions out of every one.

and yes I do love how the info you push out on the guy but come on chances of removing this tim what your doing now is similar to trying to get tim buckley out of comics by rallying in a empty alley and throwing crumple pieces of paper with “B^U” on them.
also since this is the place for preachy games why not have a Tim collab and make a game what tim can’t steal.
via copyright a title before the collab/compo starts so that when he sniffs the air on the next production bam he can’t do shat for something that doesn’t look like his work.
and the parody act. at least then those want to show how mess up tim is can do so and it won’t seem like a blog announcement out of nowhere. that and chances of a “tim langdell and jack thompson double dragon spoof where they go around Expos beating up both indie game and main stream developers(and their mascots/renown characters) to find the only case they can exploit for their goals.” being made is higher when a compo is based on one of them.
O

Somewhere on your keyboard there should be a big button with a sort of bent arrow on it, see if you can find it.
mots

I was under the impression that pod was very much still an asshole… at least until very recently
O

No no, now he creates fake accounts to be his arsehole personas, so he can shake off that image and have his cake too.
Alex Whiteside

Even Future Publishing does not licence the Edge trademark any more. I wonder if it’s connected with Edge Games’ decision to start using the Edge Magazine masthead as its logo?
Ezuku

In terms of law itself, this isn’t particularly new, as pointed out regarding monster cable. This is important because it’s affecting indy game developers and he’s on the board, which really lowers its credibility and casts it into disrepute, in the same way say… having Zimbabwe heading the UN Comission for Sustainable Development makes everybody lol @ the UN.

Incidentally, talking about trademarking common place things, TetraPak owns the tetrahedron shape, as well as a few variants. Thankfully it’s not a particularly useful shape, so nobody really cares. There are companies in Australia which have a trademark on particular shades of colours, but there needs to be actual confusion over the product for them to have a case. EU trademark laws are also pretty wierd.
john

T-mobile tried to trademark magenta (255,0,255) , they haven’t succeeded
PF

whenever this sort of topic comes up I remember this article from the onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130
Ezuku

Apple ignored the fact that there was already an iPhone, registered it as a trademark everywhere outside of the US, and then released the iPhone under its name in the US anyway. I think they settled with Cisco (original owners) since then with only a minor lawsuit somewhere along the lines. And people say Microsoft is evil…
THE EDGE FROM PIZZA HUT

“T-mobile tried to trademark magenta (255,0,255) , they havenâ€™t succeeded”
Really? because their pink seems way off 255,0,255