Future wins in UK 'Edge' trademark case against Tim Langdell
Another blow has been struck against Tim Langdell's crumbling Edge Games trademark empire, with Future publishing winning a UK court case against him. Thanks to its Edge magazine, Future has had a long (and unwanted) association with Langdell for nearly two decades. The company took Langdell to court last year over breach of contract, breach of copyright and passing off (essentially misrepresenting one's products as belonging to someone else).
Future, which long ago reached a deal with Langdell to use the Edge name, took exception to Langdell's claims that his company Edge Games had any association with Edge magazine. Future also sought to stop Langdell's repeated and persistent use of a logo very similar to that of Edge magazine to promote Edge Games and its (largely nonexistent) products.
The proceedings of the case, excellently summarized by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, read like a television sitcom. The ruling of presiding Justice Proudman provides a litany of shenanigans and chicanery on Langdell's part, a list too long to reproduce here. The highlight -- if you can call it that -- is probably Langdell's attempt to prove that he actually designed the Edge logo two years prior to the magazine's existence. As evidence he presented a file on a 5.25" floppy disc he claimed was from 1991. The only problem: The file contained on the disc was made using Windows 95.
Head over to RPS for the full (and bizarre) story.
