I really don't think Stardock is that much to blame.
The situation started because "Ford and Reiche" sold the rights to the Star Control trademark(name). And after they had sold that, they announced that that they were creating a successor to Star Control. And they are obviously not allowed to do that.
The ip situation is odd. Star Dock agree that they don't own the ip itself, but they claim they don't use it(And thus don't need it), because Star Control: Origin contains their own ip, set in the Star Control universe.
Personally I don't really care that much. Newer been a big fan of Star Control. But I don't understand how anyone could ever imagine that buying/selling the trademark, but not the right to the ip itself was ever going to be anything but a big mess.
Somehow unrelated: Star Dock had the right to sell the old Star Control games.