Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey

Enlarge / “HELLO HUMAN, Umgah Court sentences you TEN MILLION YEARS OF HARD LABOR!… Oh, you settled? But… what Umgah supposed to do with three gavels if Umgah can’t sentence anyone?!” (credit: Star Control / Aurich)

Stardock’s Brad Wardell and original Star Control creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III announced over the weekend that all parties have reached an amicable settlements in the tangled web of lawsuits between them and Stardock, which stretch back almost two years.

(To very briefly recap, Stardock and Ford & Reiche were at legal odds over who owns the copyrights and trademarks for the Star Control series of games from the 1990s. To give any more details would require a massive amount of explanation and discussion—which we already wrote a couple of years ago with this story right here. If you aren’t familiar with the disagreement—or if you want to refresh your memory—that piece will give you a good, solid grounding on the mess that got us to now.)

The settlement’s details are public, and Ford & Reiche have a blog post on their site explaining things. In summary, though, the terms are simple and straightforward: