John Walker’s coverage of Tim Langdell’s latest disaster is gold for anyone who’s been following the case. And if you feel any pity for Langdell, don’t. Over the years, he’s had numerous developers and creatives claim they’ve not received payment, bullied dozens of companies into paying him over marks he couldn’t defend, sued indie developers (and other companies) who had the audacity to use the word ‘edge’ somewhere in their product names, provided inaccurate submissions to the USPTO in order to get marks, lied to courts in the US and UK, and claimed to have ‘spawned’ Edge magazine and numerous other products (including, bizarrely, a Marvel comic). Additionally, it’s revealed in Walker’s story that Future paid off Langdell in 2004, to the tune of $275,000, in order to get him to shut the hell up and go away. In return, he cunningly carried on claiming to have invented Edge, including a US version, and said he’d designed the Edge logo and that Future ripped him off. Shameless. On the plus side, the section about the 5.25-inch disk in Walker’s piece is a fantastic read and great advice on what not to do if you’re ever involved in a court case relating to IP issues.

Maybe Lodsys, currently suing pretty much the entire world, should take note. Langdell survived when he went after the small guys, but by becoming prominent and biting off more than he could chew (i.e. EA over Mirror’s Edge and Future over Edge magazine), he’s been given international spankage. I rather hope the same happens to Lodsys.

Note: for the full bonkers Langdell story, Chaos Edge is your best bet.