If my wife’s experiences are generally held, Lawyers and judges find lawsuit trolls (Jack Thompson et al) even funnier (and more frustrating) than we do. Thompson had his own article tag on some popular law blogs.
The opportunity to rip into somebody with decades of frivolous lawsuits in passive-aggressive legalese? Too fun to pass up.
Just read that whole judges brief. Good read. :)
Once he’s drummed out, five years from now he can publish the NYT’s bestselling book “How i was a patent troll: Patent fraud and how the copyright system is broken”.
The actual decision is more interesting and entertaining than any article covering the lawsuit possibly could be.
I just hope everyone else who’s paid bogus tribute to Langdell can pick up on this decision and use it to beat him like a gong until all the bogus money he took pops back out.
(Every now and then I find myself writing a run-on sentence that actually reads well enough in English for me to leave it alone…)
Seriously, what the fuck was he thinking photoshopping what looks like every single piece of evidence he ever submitted to the PTO? God, I hope someone does file criminal charges against him for that shit.
…given the suspect nature of Dr. Langdell’s representations to both the USPTO and the Court concerning plaintiff’s current and future sales and business activities, it is an open question whether plaintiff’s business activities legitimately extend beyond trolling various gaming-related industries for licensing opportunities.
Judge Awesome. He is Judge. He is Awesome.
This order notes that all of the USPTO filings and declarations signed by Dr. Langdell contained a clear warning that “willful false statements . . . are punishable by fine or imprisonment” and could jeopardize the validity of the document.
…
as detailed above, the record contains numerous items of evidence that plaintiff wilfully committed fraud against the USPTO in obtaining and/or maintaining registrations for many of the asserted “EDGE” marks, possibly warranting criminal penalties if the misrepresentations prove true. If EA’s evidence is credited, such fraud could (and likely would) strip these registered marks of their “presumption of validity.
Oh, shit, Timmy!
I agree that the ruling is an awesome read. I love how issues that in a less ridiculous fact pattern would be “big deals” (such as the “naked” licence to Edge magazine) are mentioned only in passing because there are far bigger fish to fry.
That said, I’m sad that the enthusiast press didn’t pick up on some of the most obvious blunders in Mr. Langdell’s public filings. I didn’t expect anyone to dig out their copy of the “Edge” comic book and carefully inspect the fine print, or anything. But I expected the collective wisdom of internet gamers to have quickly noticed that the Edge comic was no longer being published, and hadn’t been published in over a decade. That’s like a single Wikipedia search away. What kind of nerds are we?
Everything in there was originally discovered by nerds on forums, then picked up by EA. I lurk a lot on rllmuk forum, where a guy called Alex W was using his knowledge of the trademarking process to dig loads of stuff up.
Sounds a lot like what happened with the sco v. Ibm case at groklaw…
Sent from my MB200 using Tapatalk
via RPS, it looks like there is a preliminary settlement that includes voiding of all the trademarks Langdell “holds”:
And if I understand this order correctly, it looks a fraud investigation is beginning against Mr. Langdell:
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2010cv02614/228647/69/
The judge has ordered Tim Langdell and his company stripped of its trademarks related to “Edge.”
Edit: (Whoops… what Calelari posted)
An analysis from phisheep, a gaf poster: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23751376&postcount=169
The final judgment is CONDITIONAL ON the parties complying with the order. And the only part of the order binding on the parties is that on Langdell to notify his own fraud to his own licensees.
In short, if Langdell fails to notify his licensees that he is a fraud (that’s what it amounts to) by 15th October then the judgment in the settlement will fail and he will face an immediate fraud deposition before the court.
That judge is damn good.
damn, I just now realized that this guy is the reason the console version of SoulEdge was renamed Soul Blade. Never put 2 and 2 together until now… damn.
(Taken from Tim Langdell removed from IGDA Membership | International Game Developers Association Board)
As far as I know, this is the first time the IGDA Board has ever ejected a member under Article III/Section 6.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Niiiiice. Talk about chickens coming home to roost. The schaden, it is so freudy.
Wasn’t somebody from the IGDA board really gung-ho about defending Langdell? It’s frankly embarassing that it took them until now to boot him (although I could imagine there were charter/rules that prevent it without something unambiguous like this, it would be equally embarassing to have charter/rules that tied their hands like that).
Aw, Shit.
He’s back!
The Rolls Buildings
Court 21
Before MR JUSTICE BARLING
Friday 10 November 2017
At 10:30 AM
Appeals
CH-2017-000157 Edge Games Inc and another v Future Publishing Limited
Christ, he’s still at it:
CH-2018-000210 Future Publishing Limited v the Edge Interactive and Others Chancery Appeals - Appeals - Permission required LIP 07/08/2018 07/08/2018