https://www.pcgamer.com/star-control-creators-file-lawsuit-against-stardock/

The legal rift between Star Control: Origins developer Stardock and original Star Control creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche deepened today as Ford and Reiche filed a lawsuit against the publisher alleging that it has infringed on their copyright, and seeking to have Stardock's Star Control trademark canceled. The suit comes in response to a December 2017 lawsuit filed by Stardock claiming that Ford and Reiche are infringing on its trademark with its Ghosts of the Precursors game, and more interestingly, that they're not actually the "creators" of Star Control. 

Stardock's complaint (via Ars Technica) runs through a relatively detailed history of Star Control, Stardock, and the way the publisher purchased the copyright and publishing rights to the series from Atari in 2013 (Atari having acquired the original publisher, Accolade, in 1999). It also alleges that later in that year, it offered the Star Control assets and rights to Ford and Reiche for the same price it paid, which they declined. But in October 2017 they announced Ghosts of the Precursors, "a direct sequel to Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters," despite not having the legal right to do so.