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Candy Crush Saga developers trademark the word 'Candy'

by Mark Tyson on 22 January 2014, 13:07

Tags: PC

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Chart-topping mobile game Candy Crush Saga's developer King.com filed for a trademark back in February 2013 for the generic word 'Candy' and it has been revealed today that the trademark has now been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. There also appears to be an EU trademark in the pipeline.

Although the trademark has been approved, it is only "for publication" which means that there is still a 30 day period open for people to oppose the trademark. The approval of the trademark will grant King.com's exclusive use of the word 'Candy' across a broad of variety products from games and software to clothing and baby monitors. (but not confectionery products)

Avoiding the 'C' word

Regarding the developers who have included the word 'candy' within the name of their apps, perhaps to get some piggyback downloads from people searching for the highly popular matching game, reports from GameZebo point out that several have already got notifications from Apple on behalf of King.com about the trademark.

Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land : packs hot game keywords in it's name?

One developer who was accused of treading too close to Candy Crush Saga's IP was Benny Hsu and his 'All Candy Casino Slots'. The game itself shows little similarity with King.com's properties besides the use of the word 'candy' but a King.com spokesman stressed in a repose to Game Industry that "the particular App in this instance was called 'Candy Casino Slots – Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land' but its icon in the App store just says 'Candy Slots', focusing heavily on our trademark." King.com added "We believe this App name was a calculated attempt to use other companies' IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings."

Whilst King.com thinks that its trademark is being constantly infringed, it also mentioned that it would not enforce the ruling against all uses of the word. "Some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask app developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so," reasoned the games maker.

HEXUS Forums :: 22 Comments

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Posted by KeyboardDemon - Wed 22 Jan 2014 13:14
Seriously? That's just getting as bad as the patent wars.
Posted by crossy - Wed 22 Jan 2014 13:32
Chart-topping mobile game Candy Crush Saga's developer King.com filed for a trademark back in February 2013 for the generic word ‘Candy’ and it has been revealed today that the trademark has now been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. There also appears to be an EU trademark in the pipeline.
This is utterly ridiculous - if anyone needs evidence why the USPTO has zero common-sense then this undoubtedly is it.
The approval of the trademark will grant King.com's exclusive use of the word ‘Candy’ across a broad of variety products from games and software to clothing and baby monitors. (but not confectionery products)
Seriously? :o Trademarking “Candy Crush” (or variants thereof) is probably okay, but clothing and baby monitors? Daft thing is that they'll probably be granted it in full.

Actually now I think of it, I'm sure that there's a couple of the car makers that use “Candy” in their colour descriptions - e.g. “Candy Pink” so presumably they'll have to ask King.com (spit) for permission to use “their” trademark.

Maybe the Vogon's should destroy the earth now … after all we seem to have reached the bottom of the barrel.
Posted by kalniel - Wed 22 Jan 2014 14:14
They're also trying to get ‘Saga’…
Posted by crossy - Wed 22 Jan 2014 16:07
kalniel
They're also trying to get ‘Saga’…
Oh lord, fingers crossed that some Vikings descendants decide to show “King.com” the error of their ways at the point of a sword.

Apart from the innate stupidity of what (stupid) King.com are trying to do (which is stupid - did I mention that?), I'm sure that the words “Candy” and “Saga” have figured in games in the 80's/90's (although my memory fails to bring any to mind at the moment - dammit) so there's clear evidence of prior use of their (stupid) trademark that the (really stupid) USPTO have (stupidly) decided to grant.
Posted by kalniel - Wed 22 Jan 2014 16:24
crossy
I'm sure that the words “Candy” and “Saga” have figured in games in the 80's/90's (although my memory fails to bring any to mind at the moment - dammit) so there's clear evidence of prior use of their (stupid) trademark that the (really stupid) USPTO have (stupidly) decided to grant.
It's a trademark, not patent.

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