Editing Fred Ford (programmer) (section)

=== Star Control intellectual property split ===
In 2018, Stardock sued Paul Reiche III along with Fred Ford in ''[[Stardock Systems, Inc. v. Reiche]]'', for trademark infringement of the "Star Control" trademark.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Courtlistener|date=August 12, 2017|title=Court Listener: Filing|url=https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268/gov.uscourts.cand.320268.1.0.pdf}}</ref> During the course of the lawsuit, Stardock trademarked numerous alien names from Star Control 1 and 2. Reiche and Ford asserted that Atari only owned the game name, marketing content and the new aliens in Star Control 3,<ref name="Hutchinson">{{Cite web|last=Hutchinson|first=Lee|date=July 7, 2020|title=An extended interview with Star Control creators Fred Ford & Paul Reiche III|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/an-extended-interview-with-star-control-creators-fred-ford-paul-reiche-iii/|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=Ars Technica|language=en-us}}</ref> and that the in-game alien names to the first two games were never Atari's to sell.<ref name="Hutchinson"/> Litigation ended at June 2019 when both sides reached a settlement that involved the parties exchanging honey for mead and the parties agreeing that Stardock has exclusive rights of the Star Control name with a list of alien names from the first two games being for the exclusive use for Reiche and Ford.<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 12, 2019|title=Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey &#91;Updated&#93;|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/06/stardock-and-star-control-creators-settle-lawsuits-with-mead-and-honey/}}</ref>