Star Control: Origins

Both Star Control and Star Control II were created by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford under their Toys for Bob studio, with Accolade publishing the titles in the early 1990s. Star Control II is critically acclaimed among the best games of all time, with high demand for a sequel.[8] By the early 2000s, the Accolade's publishing agreement with Reiche and Ford expired.[15] Reiche and Ford still owned the copyrights in Star Control I and II, but they could not successfully purchase the Star Control trademark, leading them to consider a new title for a potential follow-up.[1][20] This led them to remake Star Control II as The Ur-Quan Masters,[21] which they released in 2002 as a free download under an open source copyright license.[22]

Meanwhile, the Star Control trademark was transferred to Infogrames Entertainment.[21] This happened when Star Control publisher Accolade sold their company to Infogrames in 1999,[23] who merged with Atari and re-branded under the Atari name in 2003.[7][24] In 2011, GOG.com began selling a Star Control re-release on their digital store.[25] Ford contacted the sales platform, saying they could not sell the games without permission, leading GOG.com to separately license the Star Control trademark from Atari, and the games themselves from Reiche and Ford.[14][8][26] Atari declared bankruptcy in 2013, and their assets were listed for auction.[27]

Stardock became the top bidder on Atari's Star Control intellectual property.[28] Upon hearing the news, Paul Reiche indicated that he still owned the copyright in the original Star Control games, so Stardock must have purchased the Star Control trademark, and this was confirmed by Stardock.[29][30] Indeed, the Atari asset purchase agreement listed two assets sold to Stardock: the Star Control trademark and the Star Control III copyright.[8] As Stardock began developing their new Star Control game, they re-iterated that they did not acquire the copyright to the first two games, and that they would need a license from Reiche and Ford to use their content and lore.[7][31] Reiche and Ford echoed this understanding in a 2015 Game Developer Conference interview, stating that Stardock's game would use the Star Control trademark only.[32]

In September 2015, Stardock announced that Origins would be a prequel to Star Control.[33] Through email, Stardock tried to license character designs from Star Control, but creators Reiche and Ford repeatedly declined.[34][35] By 2016, Stardock described Origins as an alternative timeline in the same Star Control multiverse, but with none of the older games' characters,[36] to avoid infringing on Reiche and Ford's copyrighted lore.[37][38] Despite Stardock's continued offers, Reiche and Ford declined to collaborate on Origins, citing a desire to create their own sequel once they finished their ongoing projects with Activision.[36][39]

In October 2017, Stardock began selling the older Star Control games via the Steam store, as a promotion for Origins.[40] Through email, the parties began to dispute what legal rights Stardock had purchased from Atari,[41] and whether that included distribution rights over the original series.[42][43] Despite private negotiations, Stardock declined to stop selling the games, leading Reiche and Ford to formally request that Steam remove the original series from their store via a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice. Stardock formally contested the notice, and the sales continued.[41][42]

Also in October, Reiche and Ford announced Ghosts of the Precursors as a direct sequel to Star Control II.[44] Initially, Stardock supported this announcement for Ghosts of the Precursors as a "true sequel to Star Control 2",[44][45] and claimed their new Origins game would take place in an alternate universe that split off from the original series' universe.[11] By December 1st, Reiche and Ford announced that Stardock had not negotiated their legal permissions, and that "our games’ universe has absolutely no connection, hyper-dimensional or otherwise".[46][47] Responding to allegations that Stardock threatened to stop Reiche and Ford from releasing Ghosts of the Precursors, Stardock announced their lawyers would handle the dispute.[48][49]

By December 2017, Stardock filed a lawsuit against Reiche and Ford for infringing the Star Control trademark when they announced Ghosts of the Precursors as a "direct sequel" to Star Control II.[50] Soon after, the pair responded with a counter-suit against Stardock for copyright infringement, contesting the re-sale of the original games and the unauthorized use of their original characters and designs.[8] In the months that followed, Stardock applied for more than 20 new trademarks, and filed an amended claim in March 2018 to claim ownership over them. These trademark applications included names of alien races from the original Star Control, and the trademark for the community managed open-source remake, The Ur-Quan Masters.[51]

In September 2018, Stardock filed a motion with the Court requesting a preliminary injunction preventing Reiche and Ford from issuing a DMCA takedown notice against Stardock's forthcoming Origins game.[52][53] Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong denied Stardock's request on December 27, 2018, agreeing with Reiche and Ford that Stardock had been aware of the intellectual property issues by their own admission, but still started work on a potentially infringing product, calling the situation one of Stardock's own making.[53] After the ruling, Reiche and Ford issued a DMCA takedown notice to Steam and GOG.com. Stardock did not file a counter-notice, and the games were subsequently removed from sale at the beginning of 2019.[54] Later that month, both Steam and GOG.com restored Origins for sale. When Stardock owner Brad Wardell mentioned that the digital stores had reviewed and reconsidered the takedown, Polygon revealed correspondence where Stardock offered to accept potential copyright liability and secure both stores from the consequences of litigation.[55]

In June 2019, the parties reached a legal settlement, agreeing that Stardock will own the Star Control trademark, and Reiche and Ford will own The Ur-Quan Masters trademark.[56] Stardock also agreed to avoid using any plots, characters, or locations that would infringe on Reiche and Ford's copyrights, with the parties committing to discuss further disputes.[57] As part of this, Stardock dropped their trademark claims to the alien names from the first two games.[56] Reiche and Ford also agreed to remain quiet about Ghosts of the Precursors for a few years, and that their game would be renamed as part of the agreement.[57] One of the unusual agreements in the settlement was that Stardock's owner Brad Wardell would provide Paul Reiche with honey from his bee hives, in return for which Reiche will provide Wardell with mead.[56]