Mobigame: Langdell's lawyers have "fled"

Mobigame boss David Papazian has told Eurogamer that the tide has turned against Tim Langdell and his Edge videogame-name lawsuits, and hopes no other developer "will ever hear of him again".

"In the end, Langdell never sued us for past sales and all his lawyers fled, which is enough to prove that he has absolutely no legal grounds and everyone knows that now," said Papazian.

"More and more companies who are suffering from Tim Langdell are joining the fight. It is just the beginning. But it is a strong signal to everyone.

"As you may know, EA engaged a legal action against him and we believe that more companies will follow," he added. "It reminds me the story of Leo Stoller, another trademark troll who finished his career in jail."

Mobigame announced EDGE's return to the App Store yesterday, under the new name Edge by Mobigame - a collaborative decision by Mobigame and Sheridans, Papazian explained.

Yesterday's press release reaffirmed that Mobigame "had not reached any settlement or compromised our position in any way" in order to resell the iPhone puzzle game.

EA's petition against Langdell's trademarks may have been the turning point. Mobigame thinks EA's involvement is "amazing", but recognises the publisher had "no choice" but to defend Mirror's Edge. Landgell, Papazian added, had even pulled a similar stunt against Sony for using the PlayStation Edge name.

And apparently Langdell's meddling does not end there.

"If you know who Graeme Devine is, you will not be surprised to hear that Apple now supports us. Graeme had joined Apple's iPhone group this year, and today Tim Langdell is trying to sell a fake iPhone game on his fake store which is called Firebirds," said Papazian.

"He also stole an illustration from a 15 year-old girl on Deviant Art to make a fake cover. And the point is that Graeme created Firebirds in the '80s and I believe he owns the copyright on it."

Graeme Devine designed Quake III Arena as well as The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour. His most recent role was lead designer on Halo Wars at now defunct studio Ensemble.

Adding to EA and Apple's support is back-patting from The Chaos Engine, a forum for videogame developers. Despite Mobigame's upper-hand, however, the EDGE case is not resolved nor finished. Papazian hopes the end is in sight, though.

"We have still a lot of claims against Tim Langdell and his companies, but we want to move on and we hope that no game developers will ever hear of him again," he said. "The stress is still there, but we are confident."

Papazian closed by announcing that Cross Fingers, the next Mobigame game, will be revealed soon. "Future is bright," he said, extending his thanks to all of those offering their moral support.

Langdell hasn't responded publicly, as far as we can tell. We'll dig.

But enough of all this seriousness. It is Friday, and there may even be a humorous take on the Langdell vs. Mobigame case on YouTube, not that'd we'd know where to find it.