The
Star Control Website has details on the settlement of the long-running
dispute between Stardock Entertainment and Paul Reiche & Fred Ford over the
rights to the Star Control series. Word is this an amicable outcome that will
lead to future collaborations on Star Control content and beekeeping:
Game Developers Stardock Entertainment, Paul Reiche and Fred Ford have
amicably settled the dispute concerning the tangled intellectual property rights
that surrounded the 30-year old game franchise.
In a statement released by Paul Reiche on their website, Mr. Reiche wrote, "Paul
and Fred have offered to volunteer their own creativity to Origins by teaming up
with Brad to create some new aliens and plot lines for Stardock's future Star
Control games."
The settlement agreement, while itself confidential, expressly makes the terms
available to the public.
"Paul and I both insisted to the lawyers that the terms should not be
confidential," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. "We really wanted to make
sure the fans didn't have to speculate on how we came together on this and that
it was genuinely something that resulted in both sides getting what they wanted
out of the situation."
The dispute revolved around the murky dividing line between what trademarks
cover and what copyrights cover. Stardock claimed the trademarks to the classic
series and Paul Reiche claimed the copyrights. The issue came to a head when
both parties announced new games that appeared related to Star Control.
After a year of litigation, the dispute was ultimately solved by Reiche calling
Wardell directly, bypassing the lawyers, and the two finding a lot of common
ground on a wide range of topics ranging from game design to beekeeping.
"The magic trick to resolving this was just picking up the phone and calling
each other directly," said Reiche. "Brad suggested this back in 2017 and it
worked! By talking directly to each other, we were actually able to put
something together that we both liked before all the legal mumbo-jumbo got in
the way."
Once the two talked about what each really cared about, coming to a resolution
was swift.
"We figured out what we wanted in just a couple hours of talking," said Wardell.
"The rest of the time was the lawyers smithing out exact, agonizingly precise,
verbiage. That took much longer. Usually these things claim to be amicable but
it's just both sides trying to spin things. In this case, it really was
amicable."
The agreement itself, in true Star Control fashion, includes a substantial
amount of levity.
"We added a section in which I'll be working with Paul on beekeeping. He's going
to send me some meade, I'm going to send him some honey," said Wardell. "I don't
think the lawyers were particularly enthusiastic about us incorporating some of
this into the agreement. I did a tutorial video on beekeeping I was going to
send over but got stung in the video, so thought better than to actually send
it."
With respect to the specific terms, the classic Star Control games will return
for sale on Steam and GOG as they were before, along with the alien music DLC
that had been removed while the teams resolved the IP questions.
In addition, the trademark and copyright questions were put to rest with the
agreement spelling out the copyrighted IP that Reiche and Ford care about along
with the trademarks that Stardock cares about, with each party agreeing to
respect these boundaries in their use in the future.
Star Control: Origins is available on Steam and GOG for $29.99. The expansion
pack, Earth Rising, is due to be completed this Fall. Stardock and Paul Reiche
plan to begin work on the new Star Control game together this Fall.
More information and details will become available in the near future as Brad,
Paul and Fred will be hanging out at E3 together and meeting with the press to
discuss the future of games, the fascinating yet unintuitive way the legal
system works, and anything else that comes up.
To read the full release, visit
here.