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

Games
650

Have you seen any records that indicate that this is an element in the Stardock legal strategy? I’ve been wondering about this aspect for awhile (we know that Stardock is retaining the composers of some of the original music and using new version of the tracks for their game, and I was wondering if this had something to do with the original creators copyrights–which begs the same question about artwork and writing).

Also, if you’re not a lawyer, you appear to have way better information than I do on the vagaries of the law. Do you have a source for that, or have you just been doing your own research?

651

Stardock’s First Amended Complaint reads:

  1. Upon information and belief, and contrary to the common public understanding and
    what they have portrayed to the public, Reiche and Ford may not have created any of the artwork,
    animation or characters incorporated in the games, or otherwise substantially contributed to the
    authorship of Star Control I and Star Control II.

The music, specifically, was solicited via a public contest, stating that “We do NOT require exclusive use for use of any MODs we need [sic]”, so it has different rules than the rest of the content. As best I can tell, it’s still owned by the original creators, and they are free to make new variations on it. In friendlier times, P&F put Stardock in touch with Riku Nuottajärvi, who did most of the SC2 music, and Stardock hired him for SC:O.

There are a half-dozen or so of us with varying amounts of experience with the legal system on the UQM forums who have been doing research since the case started (credit for finding the Aalmuhammed precedent goes to ‘Denning’ there). Brad often derides us as “armchair lawyers”, and insists that we’re getting it all wrong. He could be right, but since his critiques almost never include specifics, we probably won’t know how right or wrong we are until the court rules.

As always, never take anything I say as legal advice.

652

Cool, Elestan. Thanks for joining us here and contributing your knowledge.

Your quote from the Stardock suit seems adjacent to the question of the original content creators owning the copyrights, but not addressing it directly, or claiming that it has any relevance other than to diminish P&F’s title as “creators.” Put another way, it’s not about ownership, but about what P&F can call themselves? Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this all coming up in the trial.

653

Browsing the UQM forums, there’s a lot of good commentary there. Someone just today posted a link to this Joint Discovery Letter Brief regarding, primarily, P&F’s former PR firm, which made some scathing public statements about Brad Wardell.

More interesting than the primary thrust of the filing is that a footnote continues to harp on P&F’s claim as “creators.” I’m kind of astonished that this really appears to be so crucial to Stardock’s case. But as part of that footnote, it does bring up the ownership of some other content creators. In this footnote by Stardock, it’s stated that P&F recently reached out to some of those creators and got them to give P&F ownership of their work. So Stardock is saying “They’ve only had the copyright to all this work since April!”

654

But that’s just lawyers and we’re not supposed to judge Brad or Stardock based on that lawyer stuff. They should be able to have their cake and eat it too, don’t ya know?

655

I think it’s about both, and it’s very likely to come up. Stardock is claiming that because P&F didn’t get those copyrights from the other contributors until now, their licensing of the SC2 copyrights to Accolade was fraudulent (but note my prior comment on P&F owning an overarching copyright). And they are also claiming that P&F can’t call themselves the “Creators” of SC2, presumably to negate P&F’s fair use defense. I have no idea whether “Creators” in this case has a legal definition distinct from the ownership of the copyright.

Yeah, that was me. :-)

I actually don’t think it’s so crucial, because (IMHO) the claims seem tenuous enough that I don’t think they’ll hold up. However, they force P&F’s lawyers to spend a bunch of effort countering them, thereby raising their legal bill. Since Stardock has the deeper pockets, it benefits by muddying the waters and dragging things out, making them more expensive for both sides. If P&F run out of money before the trial, they’ll probably be forced into something like the settlement proposal from Stardock that they posted earlier.

We should know more on July 16, when amended pleadings are due. Before that, I would encourage everyone here to sign up for PACER, which gives a $15/quarter allowance of legal document downloads, and then install the RECAP browser plugin, to make the case documents they download available to everyone on CourtListener.

656

BTW, the UQM crowd compiled a lot of its research onto a wiki page, to serve as a central nexus for information about the case.

657

Cool. That wiki pretty clearly obsolesces my timeline up top on this thread. Imagine! Using the appropriate technology for a task! Thanks, Elestan.

658

Sure thing. If you’d like to make the wiki a best-of-both-worlds, feel free to merge any content from your timeline that you think the wiki could benefit from, and then edit the OP here to point people there.

659

The amended complaints are out. Stardock is going full bore with the notion that Paul is a fraud because he didn’t actually own any of the copyrights that were the subject of the agreements with accolade. They are also claiming that Accolade owns all the aliens names and basically everything despite literal language in the original contracts saying those things belongs to Paul

"Also, pursuant to the 1988 Agreement, Accolade was the owner of the title,
packaging concept, and packaging design in and to the Classic Star Control Games and any and
all trademarks and other intellectual property rights adopted and used by Accolade in the
marketing and publishing thereof, including but not limited to product names/titles, subnames/titles,
cover art, characters (e.g., aliens), alien race names, characters names, spaceship
names and spaceship designs, which include but are not limited to the following marks: the STAR
CONTROL Mark, THE UR-QUAN MASTERS Mark (as defined infra), PRECURSORS,
FRUNGY, SUPER MELEE, ORZ, UR-QUAN, SYREEN, SPATHI, ANDROSYNTH,
CHENJESU, ILWRATH, PKUNK, ARILOU, VUX, MELNORME, YEHAT, TAALO,
DYNARRI, FWIFFO, CHMMR, DRUUGE, CRIMSON CORPORATION, and any and all
marks associated therewith; and all copyrights and proprietary rights in the derivative works and
derivative products other than those purported to be owned by Reiche (collectively the “Accolade
Star Control IP”). "

They are claiming that Accolade owned these all as trademarks, even though Accolade never filed a single one of them as a trademark.

Stardock despite it’s constant claims that they are not trying to prevent P&F from creating their game, is demanding an injunction against them doing anything involving any of the names above they now claim.

"Preliminarily and permanently enjoin Reiche and Ford, and all persons acting in
concert with them, or purporting to act on their behalf or in active concert or in
participation with them, from using Stardock’s trademarks, including but not
limited to the Stardock Marks, the STAR CONTROL Mark, the UR-QUAN
MASTERS Mark, and all of the marks set forth within the Stardock TM
Applications, as well as any confusingly similar designations or any other terms of
marks, including but not limited to GHOSTS OF THE PRECURSORS,
PRECURSORS, THE UR-QUAN MASTERS, and FRUNGY, that will violate or
infringe Stardock’s rights, and require Reiche and Ford and the participating
persons to discontinue their current infringing practices. "

I hope the people at the Ur-Quan Masters project now realize their project is in jeopardy. Since they are taking this aggressive stance that they own a trademark on “UR-QUAN MASTERS” there’s no way they can’t go after the project now since they have to be aggressive over anyone else’s use of the mark. The excuse that “the lawyers told me I had to” is already queued up. A computer game using that name simple cannot exist outside of Stardock’s control if they are to fully defend the mark they now claim.

660

Forgot the link:

Also the new counterclaim

661

Today is the day that I realized that @Thrag and @Thraeg are different posters.

662

I hope they’re step-brothers at least.

663

This is what most people refer to as attempted theft. In 2018, the creators of Star Control 1 and 2 are now being called Fake News.

664

I think of it more as Total War: Courthouse.

665

Who filed the trademark for all those names, then? Did anyone?

If not, Stardock should do that. Or Ford and Reiche should… years and years later.

666

Stardock filed for them but only late last year when the legal battle started. That was the main action that upset a lot of fans since it was in direct contradiction to what they were saying about not trying to stop P&F from making a follow up to the SC2 story line on their own. The marks have not been approved.

667

P&F are hitting hard in the counterclaim as well. It looks like Brad’s repeated statements about P&F’s definitive ownership of the IP is going to feature heavily in the case. P&F are now saying that those representations were false and that Stardock knew they were false. They are also saying that Stardock’s assurances that they wouldn’t touch P&F’s lore were knowingly false and that they intended to use the classic lore the whole time.

“Stardock made representations of material fact in emails from Wardell to Reiche
and Ford that are detailed above to the effect that Stardock stated that Reiche and Ford own the
rights to the content in Star Control I and II and that Stardock would not use any such content,
including aliens, lore, history, and ship designs, among other things, in Star Control: Origins.
172. These representations were in fact false. The truth was that Stardock intended to
incorporate numerous elements from Reiche and Ford’s Star Control Games into Star Control:
Origins, including aliens, lore, history, and ship designs, among other things, and to launch a
wholesale attack on Reiche and Ford’s intellectual property rights in the Star Control games.
173. When Wardell made these false representations, he and Stardock knew they were
false.”

668

If Ford and Reiche couldn’t even be bothered to file trademarks on the alien names, places, etc. they don’t deserve the IP. The game came out in 1990. They’ve had 28! years to decide to make another game, and have passed this whole time. And now Stardock is making a new game and all the legal trouble starts.

Sounds like a severe case of sour grapes to me. They are never going to make another game, they just want to squeeze Stardock.

669

You are a little confused as to what a trademark is.