Langdell faces contempt of court threat

Future Publishing, the UK company behind Edge magazine, has been given the green light to pursue contempt of court proceedings against accused trademark squatter Tim Langdell.

A statement handed to Eurogamer by Future today added that a counter-claim from Langdell following his defeat in a breach of contract case it had brought against him had been dismissed by the courts, and the publisher had not received notice of any further proceedings.

"As has been widely reported, Future was successful before the English High Court in all of its claims against Edge Interactive Media, Edge Games and Dr Timothy Langdell," it read.

"The judgement of Mrs Justice Proudman (which is publicly available here: www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2011/1489.html) speaks for itself.

"In addition to finding in Future's favour on every point, the Court also found that Dr Langdell had 'concocted' evidence to support his case. Future has therefore been given permission to bring proceedings against Dr Langdell for contempt of court.

"Dr Langdell's counterclaim against Future was struck out and Future has not been served with any subsequent proceedings brought by Dr Langdell or his companies, either in the UK or the United States."

Langdell issued Eurogamer with a lengthy character defense last week in which he claimed that any legal action he had taken to protect the Edge trademark was only because Future had demanded him to do so, as stated in trademark sharing agreements the two parties had reached in 1996 and 2004.

He added that he had filed an appeal against Mrs Justice Proudman's decision, in which he was "confident of prevailing", as well as a counter-claim against Future for damaging his reputation.

The rebuttal also extended an olive branch to French developer Mobigame, whose game EDGE had been targeted by a lawsuit back in 2009, though that was rejected earlier this week.