
Game Developers Are Trolling the Makers of Candy Crush With Other "Candy" Games - x43b
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/01/30/candy_crush_gets_trolled_by_developers_making_games_with_the_word_candy.html
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jere
I think Penny Arcade sums up best how ridiculous this whole issue is:
[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/01/24](http://penny-
arcade.com/comic/2014/01/24)

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clarky07
I saw that the other day, it's pretty fantastic. Trademarking "Candy" and
"Saga" is pretty absurd. Trademarking "Candy Crush Saga" is perfectly
reasonable. We'd also accept "Candy Crush".

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batiudrami
I can understand 'Saga' because their grand plan is to have 25 x-saga games
(like Zynga did with -ville). If they do that and other people start making
similar facebook games called x-saga then that would be unfair to King. I
don't know if they have any other recourse in that instance, but they should
be able to protect their brand.

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vacri
Most games tell a story of some kind, and sagas are a type of story. The idea
that one company gets a lock on that word is ludicrous. "A first-person
fantasy-based RPG called 'Dragon Saga'? Sorry, you can't have it because a
tile-matching game has trademarked the word 'saga'".

It's a bit like being able to trademark the term 'movie' \- should the makers
of 'Scary Movie' be able to stop other films from having 'movie' in the title?

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smoyer
I watched my son playing Candy Crush for a few minutes and I don't see even a
hint of a saga in that game. Can you get a patent on the process of misusing
English words to back up your trademark?

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leafo
Awesome, my site, [http://itch.io](http://itch.io), is hosting the jam. Tell
me if you have any questions.

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Gracana
Cool site! I will have to give this a closer look later.

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onedev
Here is the response King posted a couple of days ago:
[http://about.king.com/about/our-approach-to-
ip](http://about.king.com/about/our-approach-to-ip)

The last line in the above link reads "if you want to contact me directly on
this, or indeed any other aspect of what we do – please feel free to drop me a
line at rz@king.com I look forward to hearing from you."

So if any of you want to drop King a line, go for it. Call them out on their
BS.

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chii
This is what happens when there's no downside (other than cost) to
trademarking something. It doesn't hurt king to try, and the worst that
happens is they don't get the trademark approved.

But when/if it does succeed, they are able to prevent anyone else from riding
on the tail of their heavy marketing spend.

I don't like what they are doing, but they are just trying to maximize their
profit, and also prevent their competition from free-riding off their
marketing.

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pyre
So... Anyone that uses the term 'Saga' in the name of a game is trying to ride
off of the coat-tails of Candy Crush Saga?

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jaredsohn
The post doesn't say that. The effects of getting a trademark on 'Saga' are
both to prevent others from riding on their tail (while diluting the effect of
their marketing) _and_ to prevent other products that want to use the word
Saga for reasons unrelated to Candy Crush Saga. I imagine they only really
care about the former, but the latter would happen anyway.

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deevus
Good on them! This whole debacle has angered me and I hope the little guys
win.

I would have had no issue with trademarking "Candy Crush Saga", but that's it.
Ffs, King's games are already clones of other games.

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oneeyedpigeon
I wish a large, well-behaved, games company would produce a game (totally
original, good, but simple), posing as an independent developer, publish it,
wait for King/Zynga to clone it, then sue their asses off. Seems to me like
they're only getting away with this because they can bully the small guys.

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chilldream
The problem is that game mechanics aren't really copyrightable. Pac-Avoid was
likely removed for its obvious trademark infringement (oh, the irony) but you
can get away with some pretty blatant ripping off by changing all the
copyrightable assets.

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chenster
The douchebag attorneys at the USPTO need some explanation for this madness.
Given that King.com has successfully registered the "Candy" in Europe, doesn't
mean it should be overlooked in America too. How can anyone actually trademark
such an everyday word??

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eeeficus
yeah, tell Apple about it!

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pirateking
King might have thought it was taking Candy from a baby, but now they must
prepare to play Legal Saga and Negative PR Saga.

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MartinCron
I was thinking "IP Hypocrite Saga"

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bitwize
It's all fun and games till someone loses a lawsuit.

The Tetris Company LLC has for years claimed copyright and trademark rights
over all falling-tetromino games and sending out C&D letters to independent
developers. The developers laughed it off, until TTC vs. Xio, in which a
district court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

By doing something like this the developers are risking serious lawsuits, and
the invalidity of the "candy" trademark really can't be established except in
a courtroom. And I think most of the smaller devs will settle way before then.

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gamblor956
TTC vs Xio involved a direct clone. The judge ruled in his ruling that the
game rules and gameplay were not copyrightable. Indeed, the judge noted that
games like Dr. Mario (a tetris-like) would not have violated TTC's copyright.

Xio's clone went beyond just rules and gameplay--it copied the dimensions,
colors, and various art assets. Comparing screenshots of Tetris and Xio's
clone, it would have been very difficult for most people, even those familiar
with Tetris, to identify which was the original.

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jacobolus
Xio’s game didn’t copy any art assets from anywhere, as I can tell you, since
I made all the art for it. [Mostly over one weekend, as a volunteer favor to
the developers.]

The colors were not copied from anywhere, they were picked, by me, with no
reference to any existing art, using a careful process designed to maximize
distinguishability. To be specific, I decided that the colors should all be
clearly separated in CIELAB lightness and hue, and then chose which lightness
to match to which hue based on the gamut of then-current iPhones.

The result is a bunch of “bright” colors. But lots of games want bright
colors, because they are the most easily distinguishable, and having easily
distinguishable colors makes a game easier to play.

As for the appearance of the bricks, I cooked up a dozen or so possibilities
in Photoshop, and let the rest of the team decide which to use. Again, created
in a few various styles, but not with any reference to any previous game.

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gamblor956
Just _look_ at the screenshots of Xio's clone and Tetris. They are almost
identical. Now compare Tetris with tetris-likes such as Dr. Mario, and the
difference is immediately apparent.

Copying assets doesn't just mean verbatim copy-and-paste. It includes
recreating other assets such that they are virtually identical to the source
material, as the art assets you apparently created were.

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MrJagil
Thought experiment: What would happen if Apple allowed all these infringing
games to stay in the appstore? They'd get a fine? Get sued? What if they then
CONTINUED to let the ganes stay. Making a stand on trademarking... I mean,
Apple can pay any fine thrown at them and the governemt can't really close
them down... Can they? "Yo Cook, shut it down."

How does a state handle companies richer than some countries?

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lvturner
I think this is brilliant, but is slamming Apple's iOS approval process with
*candy titles really the best way? Isn't there are risk that you are flooding
it and causing delays for (sorry for the phrasing) legitimate developers in
getting their apps approved?

Hate to cast a negative on this, as it DOES nicely illustrate the
ridiculousness of the situation!

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kcbanner
I don't think there is any requirement that these games be on iOS.

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donniezazen
I can't say I sympathize with King.com. I always find it annoying when
creative folks use IP laws.

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choult
Those IP laws are the same things that underpin the GPL and other Open Source
licenses.

Granted, trademarks can sometimes be silly, copyright terms far too long and
software patents ridiculous but at heart they do provide some very strong
value.

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warfangle
Here and I thought that even in the absence of copyright, GPL and other open
source licenses would be covered under contract law.

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doktrin
I eagerly await the day some shameless company begins trademarking
prepositions and punctuation.

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sitkack
I should trademark replacing trailing s with z.

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islon
King is trademarking the words candy and saga so nobody can ripoff king’s
ripoffs

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paines
Uhhh, I have an Puyopuyo clone in the pipeline which I wanted to release soon
(denied because of jagged graphics). This calls for CandyCandy, amirite?!?

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l33tfr4gg3r
Sounds like the equivalent of a distributed denial of service attack against
patent trolling!

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icypy
Lost respect once candy crush trademarked their name, keep the trolling going!

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crististm
Europe is not a country. And European Union is not a country either.

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vanattab
Who said it was? I don't see that in the article or comments.

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hajderr
King not so King anymore.

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ialex
i Love the campaign.

