The Third Doctrinal War -- Stardock, Reiche/Ford, and Star Control

Anything about the terms of the settlement?

No, and there won’t be anything trustworthy. The rule of thumb here is that anyone who talks about it doesn’t know anything, and anyone who knows things won’t talk about it.

One can glean a few bits from “shoot a laser in the box and see which hole it comes out of” activities, such as Elestan’s observation about the trademark no longer being contested, but I assert that the 98% likely scenario is what I said several years ago in September: everyone takes their marbles and goes home, and both parties return to the status quo ante and just agree to not mess with each other’s toys. Nobody pays anyone else’s legal bills.

All of that notwithstanding I’m sure we can all look forward to about 6 years of Brad talking about what a major victory this huge waste of time, effort, money and goodwill was for him.

We should be able to glean a fair amount from how the trademarks shake out; they are required to notify the USPTO within 20 days of the termination of the litigation. At the least, we should know whether Stardock has stopped trying to claim “The Ur-Quan Masters”, and the alien race names.

And I presume that at some point, there will be an announcement of the fate of GotP.

Does a settlement have to be confidential?

No; whether it can be disclosed is negotiated between the parties.

Usually the terms are confidential and both parties agree to release a prepared statement and then say no more. Anything is possible though. We’ll probably see a neutral toned and minimally informative statement put up in the next few days on the their respective websites.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall over the last few days as negotiations closed. I have to presume by the “no settlement” announcement relayed here, the source of which could only be one possible person, that were was a last minute angry storm out before coming back to the table and settling.

Looks like the Stardock Q&A page has been taken down. No announcement in its place yet, and nothing yet on www.dogarandkazon.com either.

Well, this all seems like good news! Especially after all the posturing by Stardock. Also, I have learned a valuable lesson: never believe anything that Derek Smart says.

Hopefully, this means Ghosts of the Precursors is still a go?

A big indicator will be the Alien Race DLC…

I know people like to dunk on Derek, but given that he’s friends with Brad, it’s almost certain that Brad was feeding him the usual line of Brad-lives-in-an-imaginary-world-where-he-always-wins, and “I believed the thing my buddy told me”, while unwise in this particular case, is not such an unreasonable position.

If Derek’s going to present himself as some kind of gaming industry Deep Throat, he should engage in a tad of objectivity and critical thinking. He was full of shit twice on this.

It’s also helpful to have some intellectual humility, and a willingness to admit when you are (completely, utterly) wrong about something.

You guys crack me up.

The settlement terms in many ways should be pretty obvious by each party’s subsequent actions. We know what was disputed so how those disputed issues shake out should answer many questions. The only thing unknown would be if any money was exchanged to resolve those issues.

Did you finish tying yourself in knots yet?

I wasn’t talking about confidential details as it pertains to how it was going to be settled; but that they’re in discussions on a settlement - and it’s not going anywhere last I heard about a week ago.

And don’t you know it, literally several hours later, word broke that they found a way to settle it.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1137340171005902849

Agreed. But in truth, sometimes when a sources says “you can say this, but not this”, I have to navigate around how much I can|cannot say without running afoul of my promise. It’s a fine line.

Besides being friends with Brad and some of the parties, I know everything about the case. And aside from what I have said publicly, I take confidentiality seriously, and my goal isn’t, and never has been, to score points with people on the Internet at the expense of trust. It’s why people tell me things because I know quite a lot of people in the biz - and they all trust me because they know I’m old school and take that shit seriously.

The case was headed for trial and they were both stuck on the terms of the settlement, with major sticking points being deal breakers. I don’t have the details on how they worked around it, nor would I disclose it; but I am surprised that they reached an agreement after all that time-wasting back and forth over it.

Why? Because I sided with Brad (who I argued with publicly, and laughed at over his incredulous first settlement offer) on some points - and still do? Are you even serious right now?

Before I even used the word “settlement” here yesterday, was anyone expecting that after all this, that they were actually in settlement talks? To the extent that less than 24hrs later it was public?

geez

Didn’t the recent filings for extensions mention the fact settlement talks were ongoing? Glad for everyone involved that it is over, and hopefully they get to go on and both do their own thing.

Edit: Yeah, the stipulation doc from May 28th (the one from the 3rd as well) mentions the settlement process.

So I guess yeah we were expecting it before you mentioned it? ;)

Being this right is a burden that I alone must, apparently, bear.