| Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Reiche | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States District Court for the Northern District of California |
| Full case name | Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Paul Reiche III and Robert Frederick Ford |
| Decided | December 27, 2018 |
| Citations | Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Reiche, No. 17-cv-07025-SBA, 2018 WL 7348858 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 27, 2018)[1] |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Saundra Brown Armstrong |
| Keywords | |
| United States copyright law, United States trademark law, Digital Millennium Copyright Act | |
Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Paul Reiche III and Robert Frederick Ford, 2018 WL 7348858 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 27, 2018) is a legal case that led to a settlement confirming an intellectual property split for the Star Control series of games. After a motion at the United States District Court, the parties agreed that series creators Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford owned the copyrights for the games Star Control (1990) and Star Control II (1992), while Stardock owned the Star Control trademark, with neither side using each other's intellectual property in future releases.
The Star Control copyrights were separated from the trademark in the early 2000s. Accolade allowed their copyright license to expire and revert to Reiche and Ford, who re-released Star Control II as The Ur-Quan Masters. Meanwhile, Accolade's assets were acquired by Atari SA, who later declared bankruptcy in 2013. Stardock purchased Atari's Star Control assets in a bankruptcy auction, leading the parties to acknowledge that Reiche and Ford retained their copyrights, while Stardock owned the trademark. In 2017, each side accused the other of violating their rights: Stardock was selling the original games without Reiche and Ford's consent, whereas Reiche and Ford announced a sequel to Star Control II without Stardock's consent. Stardock filed a lawsuit, and Reiche and Ford counterclaimed that Stardock was unlawfully selling their games and misappropriating their work in the upcoming game Star Control: Origins. Stardock responded by filing trademarks in character names from the original Star Control games.
In late 2018, Stardock's request for an injunction against a copyright takedown was denied by Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong. Steam and GOG.com removed the games from their stores, but restored Origins after Stardock agreed to accept responsibility for any potential infringement. In 2019, both sides agreed to a settlement, with Reiche and Ford owning the copyright to Star Control I and II, and Stardock owning the Star Control trademark. Both series would remain separate, with Reiche and Ford avoiding use of the original name, and Stardock avoiding use of the original fictional universe.