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What a mess
And from what it seems, what a bunch of dicks on both sides.
At the outset this seems to be very simple:
- Reiche/Ford own Star Control 1/2 IP, characters, ships, universe etc.
- Accolade > Atari > Stardock own Star Control trademark, SC3 (with the exception of SC1/2 IP used in it) and all SC1/2/3 marketing material.
The email threads - some of which are in Stardock's article/QA, some of which have been shared by Reiche/Ford and some of which (largely overlapping) is in lawsuits - seem to be amicable for a long while and Stardock keeps Reiche/Ford informed on what they are doing, repeatedly asking for some agreement on SC1/2 IP and/or cooperation which is denied. At at least one point Stardock made an offer to sell whatever they had - primarily the Star Control trademark - to Reiche/Ford which they decined. This all looks normal and good enough.
Then there is all the crap about SC1/2 sales which appears to be what triggered the lawsuits. Basically it boils down to SC1/2 being sold in GOG by Reiche/Ford and in Steam by Stardock and they could not agree on who owned the rights to market these.
And then things just went south.
- Reiche/Ford announcing their own game - Ghosts of the Precursors - within months of Star Control: Origins - which they know a lot about as they were kept in the loop - was a dick move.
- Associating that or allowing it to be associated with Star Control - which is a registered trademark of Stardock - was a dick move.
- Stardock adding original alien races - starting with putting some into day 0 DLC, if I remember correctly - was a dick move.
- That DMCA claim on SC: Origins was a dick move.
- Stardock's lawsuit is a dick move. Unfortunately, Reiche/Ford's does not seem that much better.
This is a glorious mess. Nobody wins, everyone loses
This is my understanding so feel free to correct if I am wrong.
And from what it seems, what a bunch of dicks on both sides.
At the outset this seems to be very simple:
- Reiche/Ford own Star Control 1/2 IP, characters, ships, universe etc.
- Accolade > Atari > Stardock own Star Control trademark, SC3 (with the exception of SC1/2 IP used in it) and all SC1/2/3 marketing material.
The email threads - some of which are in Stardock's article/QA, some of which have been shared by Reiche/Ford and some of which (largely overlapping) is in lawsuits - seem to be amicable for a long while and Stardock keeps Reiche/Ford informed on what they are doing, repeatedly asking for some agreement on SC1/2 IP and/or cooperation which is denied. At at least one point Stardock made an offer to sell whatever they had - primarily the Star Control trademark - to Reiche/Ford which they decined. This all looks normal and good enough.
Then there is all the crap about SC1/2 sales which appears to be what triggered the lawsuits. Basically it boils down to SC1/2 being sold in GOG by Reiche/Ford and in Steam by Stardock and they could not agree on who owned the rights to market these.
And then things just went south.
- Reiche/Ford announcing their own game - Ghosts of the Precursors - within months of Star Control: Origins - which they know a lot about as they were kept in the loop - was a dick move.
- Associating that or allowing it to be associated with Star Control - which is a registered trademark of Stardock - was a dick move.
- Stardock adding original alien races - starting with putting some into day 0 DLC, if I remember correctly - was a dick move.
- That DMCA claim on SC: Origins was a dick move.
- Stardock's lawsuit is a dick move. Unfortunately, Reiche/Ford's does not seem that much better.
This is a glorious mess. Nobody wins, everyone loses
This is my understanding so feel free to correct if I am wrong.
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