Killer Edge Racing Pulled From App Store Due To Spurious Trademark Claim by Tim Langdell
6:50 am, November 8th, 2009, Craig Grannell
Another game yanked from the App Store due to a dodgy trademark claim
Tim Langdell’s back, and this time he’s mad(der than a bag of spanners). Today, Nalin Sharma’s Killer Edge Racing is the victim. The short version: like with Mobigame’s Edge, Langdell claims Nalin’s game is riffing off Edge’s ‘famous’ marks; additionally, Pocket Gamer reports that Langdell’s moved to register Killer Edge Racing and Killer Edge Racers, despite Killer Edge having its roots back in 2005, way before Edge Games claimed to be working on a racing game of its own. (It’s since released Racers—and the word ‘released’ is used here in its loosest possible sense—see ChaosEdge for the full story. But given that Racers is a redressed PC game from a liquidated company and is ‘released’ on home-burned DVDR and is not on iPhone, there’s no possibility of confusion.)
Of course, Apple will continue to hide behind the DMCA in these cases, saying it’s doing what it’s doing for legal reasons. But as this case and the one regarding StoneLoops! of Jurassica show, Apple’s going to start looking foolish if it doesn’t implement some kind of robust background check and a longer process of investigation/arbitration/settlement prior to yanking a game. A dispute policy is utterly essential, but the one currently in place is clearly open to abuse.
Here’s hoping Sharma manages to get his game back on the App Store without compromising the brand he’s been using for five years, and that EA’s case with Langdell next year reaches a conclusion that satisfies the indie developers regularly under fire from his trolling actions (oh, and the 15-year-old girls on DeviantArt he steals artwork from to advertise his games that don’t actually exist).
Posted by Craig Grannell in News, Opinions, Top stories, iPhone Apps | Comment on this article
For claims like this, the complainant should have to prove his mark is still valid and famous by means of 3rd party poll. I’m 25 years old, much older than the average app store user, and I don’t remember ‘Edge’ or think its famous/classic and I’m sure that these game creators that are near my age also have the same difficulty remembering is pos of a game.
Also, I’m really considering making a game that does nearly nothing and calling it “Tim Langdell is a Troll – Edge Edition” so he has to make fun of himself while getting it pulled.
jeremyji, on November 8th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I have nearly a decade on you and I do remember Edge games, which started life in the UK. But here’s the thing: even in the 1980s, when Edge was actually publishing games, and in the UK, it wasn’t that famous. Over here, Ocean, System 3, Codemasters, Thalamus, Ultimate, US Gold, and a slew of others were more famous than Edge.
That said, even people who played Edge games in the 1980s wouldn’t mix up Edge by Mobigame with Bobby Bearing, nor consider Killer Edge a game by Edge, in the same way no-one sees Apple Tree—Hangman For Kids and thinks it’s a game by Cupertino’s finest.
Craig Grannell, on November 8th, 2009 at 10:27 am
it would be nice of CoM would stop trying these cases in their blogs and let the courts (which actually have legal training and authority) handle it. and stop bashing Apple for doing what they must to be kept out of it by removing the offending app until the issue is settled.
as for the “Apple must start checking these things”. why not. Apple will tie up their legal department checking every possible trademark, patent and copyright for these apps (which are submitted at like 1000 a day on a slow day) so that nothing is every approved. and nothing new will be released by Apple because the lawyers will be too busy checking apps so they can all be approved in a timely manner (lets not forgot those complaints) and won’t have time to check conflicts for their software, computers, the iphone etc.
Lucas, on November 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
There is a world of difference between “checking every possible trademark, patent and copyright for these apps” and being more robust when trademark and IP challenges are mounted.
As it stands, the App Store’s “take down on challenge” policy is starting to be abused, and that in the long run could see indies—the lifeblood of the platform—vanish, because they simply cannot afford the fight. In the case of the ‘edge’ disputes, it’s largely EA wading in that’s provided the indies with the ability to stick around. Without them, I doubt Edge by Mobigame would be back on the store, and Killer Edge Racing would have much hope of returning.
Craig Grannell, on November 8th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I don’t agree with the random Apple-bashing in the last couple of paragraphs. The fault is the stupid DMCA law in the USA, not Apple. A law, is like … a law, you know? Apple has no choice but to do the take-down. It’s not their fault.
The law was stupid the first time it crossed Ronald Regan’s desk, stupid when it was eventually agreed to by the US lawmakers, stupid when implemented, and will be stupid in retrospect once it’s finally deleted years and years from now.
Gazoobee, on November 8th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I’m not randomly bashing Apple, merely stating that it’s going to start looking a bit stupid if it doesn’t start making its dispute policy more robust. Bear in mind that with one of the recent cases, company ‘b’ made a complaint about an app by company ‘a’. Apple went to company ‘a’, who supplied a lot of reasons (including responses from a legal team) why company ‘b’ was talking utter shit. Apple then asked company ‘b’ if it was OK with said response. Unsurprisingly, it said no and – yoink! – one dead app.
Still, I guess the laywers will all get (even more) fat, happy and rich.
Craig Grannell, on November 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Tell you what. Can we call the game “F**k Tim Langdell Racing” and call it a day?
Phil, on November 8th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
>The law was stupid the first time it crossed Ronald Regan’s desk
This “stupid law” would be the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, based on two treaties from 1996. Ronald Reagan’s second term as president ended in 1989.
DGF, on November 8th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
The guys a fucken nut end of story. Everyone should check what wiki has to say about Langdell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDGE_Games
If you check out the very bottom of the page you’ll see what happened between him and IGDA. I find it very interesting and it says a lot that the IGDA was convening a meeting of its membership to decide whether or not to throw Langdell off its board of directors. In my neck of the woods an individual such as Langdell is known as a two faced crook.
Porkchop1234, on November 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
I wonder if the post author has read the DMCA yet? Because it doesn’t seem he has…Apple’s policies can do nothing about this…if they get a takedown notice that fulfills all the requirements of a DMCA notice, they *have* to take the app down, no questions asked, no pretexts accepted, no reasoning available…it’s takedown and that’s it. Now…*after* it has been taken down, the app developer can go to a judge and bitch about it and get an order that says they can get it back on the store…but without that, or at the very least a copyright registration form with all the stamps, Apple can’t do a thing except take the app down and keep it out of the store.
Complain about your government’s stupidity, not about Apple’s compliance with the dumbass laws of the US.
Vox, on November 9th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Here here I agree with Vox. The laws should definitely be changed so as to take away any legitimacy from the less then desirable so called developers. In this case Apple is the big shot whose stuck in the middle with little or no choice left except to comply with a take down notice.
porkchop1234, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm