Mobigame slams Langdell, Edge

Mobigame CEO David Papazian has responded via Eurogamer to the statement made last night by Edge Corp., the company run by Tim Langdell.

He called Edge's defence a "cynical attempt by Tim Langdell to generate sympathy".

Edge's statement painted Future Publishing (owner of Edge magazine) as the villain. Apparently Future paid Edge $275,000 in 2004 to acquire worldwide print rights to the trademark Edge. In return, Edge guaranteed it would "take action" against any third parties using the word Edge in relation to video games. If Edge didn't make good on this promise, the $275,000 fee would need returning "along with other extreme penalties".

This "sizable [sic] pressure" led to the case against Papazian's Mobigame and its iPhone game Edge.

"Edge never wished to enter into a dispute with fellow Indie developer Mobigame, but was required to do so by Future," declared Edge, which was apparently first made aware of Mobigame's Edge iPhone game by Future Publishing. Cue a lengthy and well publicised war of words between Edge and Mobigame.

But now that Future agreement has been "terminated", Edge Games wants to get back on good footing with Mobigame.

"Edge hopes and trusts that now the requirement on it to take action against Mobigame has ended with the Future agreement being terminated, that Mobigame and Edge may commence amicable relations," the statement read. "Edge has extended the olive branch to Mobigame’s David Papazian and not yet had a response."

"We have no connection to Edge games (and we don't want one)."

David Papazian, CEO, Mobigame

But Papazian has snubbed the offer of an olive branch, and the suggestion that Edge games is promoting Mobigame, and told Eurogamer that Tim Langdell will "probably be put in jail" for his current appeal against a Future lawsuit.

"We have no connection to Edge games (and we don't want one)," wrote Papazian. "We believe this is a cynical attempt by Tim Langdell to generate sympathy for his court case.

"He will try to use the argument 'Future made me do it' for his appeal against the Future lawsuit.

"We are certain that he will lose again, and he will probably be put in jail.

"Furthermore," Papazian added, "we sent a DMCA notice to the company hosting his website, because he has no right to use our company name or our games names, which are protected by the trademark law."

Mobigame has also sent a cease and desist letter to Apple to get Edge Games' Edgebobby2 game - a sequel to Bobby Bearing - removed from the App Store.

"We are certain that [Langdell] will lose again, and he will probably be put in jail."

David Papazian

"This game infringes Robert Figgins' copyright (Robert & Trevor Figgins created Bobby Bearing back in the 1980s, and they own the copyright on this game since Langdell's UK company was closed into liquidation in 1990)," Papazian explained. "This game also infringes Future Publishing's logo, our trademark EDGE, and confuses our fans."

Edge Games told a different story: "Apple has informed Edge that Mobigame had filed a complaint apparently stating that Mobigame owns the sole right worldwide to the word Edge. This came despite the fact that Mobigame's application for Edge in the US still not being approved for publication, and despite both Edge and Mobigame owning UK rights in the same mark (along with Future).

"Given how severely Edge and Tim Langdell were pilloried when people thought Edge was claiming sole rights to the word Edge, it is hoped Mobigame doesn't pursue this claim to owning the word Edge to the exclusion of Edge's 27 years of use of Edge/The Edge," concluded Edge.

Edge Corp. is appealing against Future's court victory that will see Edge's UK trademark registrations cancelled. The decision was "plain wrong" and made "in error" by a judge who was "gullible" and "did not understand technology". Edge is "confident" of "entirely reversing the first Judge's judgement" in the Appeals court.

Edge has also filed a counter-claim against Future for "damage of reputation" caused by the Mobigame case, and for Future not promoting Edge's use of the trademark as was apparently the agreement. "Edge is extremely confident it will prevail on the counter-claim."