Tim Langdell, the Tim Langdell trademark troll whose pursuit of the word ‘EDGE’ once rattled Namco, Future Publishing and Electronic Arts, has filed a new federal complaint against Mobigame in Virginia. Mobigame CEO David Papazian disclosed the action on LinkedIn, laying out in precise technical detail why he believes the case will not survive scrutiny, and making clear that Mobigame intends to fight it all the way.
More Than Seventeen Years in Langdell’s Crosshairs
‘For more than 17 years, Mobigame has had to deal with Tim Langdell and Edge Games over the word EDGE,’ Papazian wrote. The history runs deep. Back in 2009, Mobigame‘s iOS game EDGE was pulled from Apple’s App Store in the US and the UK following threats of legal action from Langdell. The game eventually returned to digital storefronts under its original name in 2009, after Electronic Arts challenged the ‘Edge’ trademark in connection with its game Mirror’s Edge, a challenge that ultimately resulted in the trademark’s cancellation.
That cancellation did not, it seems, close the file permanently. The new federal complaint rests on a claim that Edge Games used the name EDGE GAMES in US commerce as early as 2003, via a J2ME mobile version of the game Bobby Bearing. Papazian is unimpressed by the evidence offered. ‘The new complaint relies on the claim that Edge Games used EDGE GAMES in U.S. commerce as early as 2003 through Bobby Bearing,’ he explains, ‘but the evidence it highlights is a J2ME/Java mobile version, while the registration they are trying to revive comes from a use-based application filed in October 2010. That means they need real, verifiable U.S. trademark use before that date.’
The technical problem, as Papazian frames it, comes down to the incompatible ecosystems of the period. In 2003, J2ME was a reasonable distribution format in Europe, but the US carrier market was largely controlled through Qualcomm’s BREW platform. BREW and J2ME could not interoperate. ‘A European J2ME game on the internet is not evidence of U.S. trademark use,’ Papazian states flatly.
The Bobby Bearing Evidence and What It Actually Shows
Mobigame has spoken directly to the developer of the Bobby Bearing mobile version, and the testimony supports their position. According to Papazian, that developer confirmed ‘the J2ME version was created by his team, not by Langdell, and distributed mainly in Europe.’ A BREW version was discussed at some point, but those negotiations came to nothing. The screenshot Langdell puts forward as evidence carries the name Artegence, the Polish company associated with that work, which Papazian says ‘strongly confirm[s] that this is not independent proof of U.S. commercial use.’
This matters because the trademark registration Langdell is attempting to revive, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 5,934,761, was itself filed in 2010, and Langdell has already lost it once. The Southern California Intellectual Property Law Blog has reported that Langdell lost that registration, making the attempt to demonstrate earlier commercial use central to any effort to resurrect it.
Tim Langdell Trademark Troll Faces a Stronger Opponent This Time
The commercial landscape for Mobigame is very different now from what it was in 2009. Zombie Tsunami, the company’s subsequent title, has amassed more than 500 million downloads, and Papazian is clear that this changes the equation. ‘Mobigame will not treat this as a private nuisance to be settled quietly,’ he wrote. ‘Thanks to Zombie Tsunami and its 500M+ downloads, we have the means, evidence and determination to fight this case to the end. Yes, Tim, more than half a billion zombies are finally here to help us clean up this mess.’
Papazian adds that Mobigame welcomes the discovery process and wants ‘the documents, metadata, alleged sales records, file sources, chain of rights, communications.’ If the evidence confirms what the public record suggests, he says Mobigame ‘will seek full compensation’ and intends to ‘expose Tim Langdell for what he is: a trademark troll, and keep this fight public, factual and documented, so the industry can learn from it.’
Langdell, for his part, has moved into different territory in recent years. He is an ordained Priest (Zen and Christian) and works as a Chaplain in palliative care. He has written books covering computer programming, video game design, virtual reality, psychology and hospice, and recently republished a book he wrote about the ZX Spectrum.
His earlier trademark activity left a long paper trail. Future Publishing licensed the trademark for its EDGE magazine in 1993, then bought out the relevant part of the trademark from Langdell in 2005. Namco, facing similar pressure, renamed Soul Edge to Soul Blade for Western release before eventually rechristening the entire series Soulcalibur. Mobigame, backed now by hundreds of millions of Zombie Tsunami players and a detailed technical rebuttal, is betting that the outcome this time will be rather different.
