Bytes: Tim Langdell, at it again!

In case you missed out on exactly who Tim Langdell is, or what he's been up to, I recommend reading this summary post by Derek Yu.

The dust from that whole thing settled a couple weeks ago when mobigames' EDGE was re-released on the App Store.  Then, after getting news that he had threatened mobigames again just recently, Kotaku turned up this gem:

Word Mark EDGE OF TWILIGHT
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77748665
Filing Date June 1, 2009
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) EDGE Games Inc CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 530 South Lake Avenue Ste 171 Pasadena CALIFORNIA 91101
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

According to Kotaku, Edge of Twilight is slated for a 2009 multi-console next-gen release, published by SouthPeak Games, formerly indie publisher GameCock.

Tim Langdell is still on the IGDA board of directors, for reasons that I cannot fathom no matter how hard I try.  Also, his biography on the IGDA site still contains a large number of disputed claims, including:

"Tim has worked on almost 200 titles over his career to-date": Tim Langdell's companies have been involved in the distribution of nearly 100 titles, 95% of which were shipped before 1985.

"is currently working on new games for the PS3, Wii, PC and Xbox 360": Unverifiable, as no screenshots or videos or trailers for these projects exist, though many games that the Edge Games site claims to have shipped for these platforms definitely do not exist.

"has spawned such well-known EDGE branded ventures as EDGE Magazine (published by Future), EDGE game PCs (made by Velocity Micro)": While the details of EDGE Magazine's licensing agreement are still unknown, there are public court records proving that EDGE game PCs were not spawned, but were forced to license Tim's trademark after becoming their own successful business.

"He is co-founder of AIAS": His name is not mentioned on either the AIAS's website or the AIAS wikipedia entry, but it could be a consistent typo.

"was responsible for the first televised game awards show": Would love to know what show that was!

The ire that Tim incited when he took action against Mobigames was further inflamed when his history of trademark trolling and abuse was brought to light by various researchers.  Many claimed that Tim was not merely defending his generic "EDGE" trademark, but was going farther.  Tim Langdell, it has been claimed, waits for any company who makes any game with the word "edge" in the title to become successful, and then attacks them with outrageous threats against their livelihood.  When Tim Langdell registered a trademark for "EDGY" on May 16th, during the mobigames debacle, many thought this was proof of his ill intent.  Some, such as fellow board member Tom Buscaglia, rejected it out of hand for unknown reasons.  The remainder of the IGDA board was silent on the matter.

I would love to hear some explanation from some board member about how this latest action by Tim Langdell could possibly be conceived of as reasonable and legitimate for a standing Director. I would prefer to hear from someone other than Tom Buscaglia, as his responses tend toward misdirection, typoes, ultimatums, and other embarrassing rhetorical tools and/or failures. However, as he is the sole board member who has ever, at any point, deigned to actually respond to this matter in any way, shape, or form (deleterious as that response may have been), I suspect we don't have much of a choice in the matter.