The Edge Games circus is back in town, as Tim Langdell’s company says it is “completely certain” that it will defeat Electronic Arts and Mobigame in its ongoing legal disputes over the Edge trademark.
The well-known dispute between Edge Games and Mobigame has been dragging on since May 2009 when Edge Games, known for its zealous defense of infringements on its various trademarks, forced the removal of the hit iPhone game Edge from the App Store. The strategy backfired when Mobigame chose to fight back, launching an ongoing conflict that has seen the game restored, removed and renamed, with neither side refusing to admit even the slightest possibility of being in the wrong. Electronic Arts entered the fray in September 2009, filing a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel many of the “Edge”- related trademarks registered to the company after being “continuously threatened” by Edge Games over the 2008 release Mirror’s Edge.
But in a recent email sent to Eurogamer, an unnamed Edge Games rep said that despite the most fervent wishes of the gaming press, Edge was sure to prevail in both cases. “We are completely confident we will win,” the rep said. “Isn’t it amazing how biased towards Electronic Arts the press is on this? When did EA suddenly become the good guys?”
“Yes, we are completely certain of winning in both the U.S. and U.K. against EA/EA DICE and against [Mobigame] on the European CTM issue,” the rep continued. “We have asked Connect2Media to remove [Mobigame’s] Edge from mobile phones and are confident they will do so if they have not done so already.”
But in a joint statement, Mobigame and Connect2Media denied that they have any intention of acquiescing to that demand and expressed their own certainty that Edge’s trademarks will ultimately be revoked. “Both Mobigame and Connect2Media have taken extensive legal advice on this issue, and neither company considers that Edge Games has any enforceable registered trade marks in relation to computer games,” the statement said.
“The U.S. and U.K. trademarks that Edge Games typically refer to when making their claims of infringement are either not yet registered, subject to revocation/opposition proceedings or irrelevant to the field of computer games,” it continued. “Of those Edge Games registered trademarks which are currently subject to revocation/opposition proceedings, the legal advice obtained by Mobigame is that they will almost certainly be revoked or canceled by the respective Trade Mark Offices.”
“In view of the above, neither Mobigame nor Connect2Media intend to concede to the demands made by Edge Games, by removing Edge from sale anywhere in the world, or by changing its name,” the statement concluded.
Long story short: It looks like the dust hasn’t quite settled on this one after all.
