

Candy Crush creator abandons 'candy' trademark efforts - bpierre
http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/25/5446504/candy-crush-creator-abandons-candy-trademark-efforts

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chrisbennet
In case anyone missed it, Candy Crush is a copy someone else's game in the
first place. They tried to buy and when that didn't work out, they cloned it.
[http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/24/candy-crush-maker-accused-
of-s...](http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/24/candy-crush-maker-accused-of-stealing-
from-indie-developer-4275642/)

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deletes
That is not true. Did you read your link?

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talmand
Mixed up the apps a bit, there is a strong accusation of Candy Crush being a
clone of another game named Candy Swipe. In that case they are trying strong
arm the guy out of the way despite his strong claims. Just yet more crappy
behavior from a modern day bully.

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schnevets
Try downloading Candy Swipe. Yeah it came first, but the game isn't nearly as
good - the graphics are stagnant, the objectives are unclear, and the game
itself is just boring. Not to mention both games are just derivatives of a
thousand other tile matching games that have existed since the NES days.

Game mechanics are not trademarkable, and its a huge benefit for the entire
industry. Studios steal from eachother and make incremental improvements,
which means a lot more variety in genres, more choices for consumers, and a
greater commitment to quality. Still, big studios try to weasel their way into
exclusivity through trademarks.

I say don't hate on King.com for their past actions, reprimand them for trying
to change the rules of the game once they reached the top of the hill.

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talmand
As I have not played either game, I was not commenting on the game mechanics.
I was referring to the fact that two similar games may not necessarily be
allowed to have similar names if one were trademarked, which is the mostly the
focus of the guy's complaint. Considering King's reaction to his complaint, I
would say that King actually supports his claim but are using a clever method
to get around it to use his own claim against him.

I agree that there's not much to be done, and should not be done, about
copying a game's mechanics and attempting to improve upon them. But part of
the accusations are cloning art assets which can have consequences up to a
certain point. I think a combination of cloning art assets in accordance with
their respective game mechanics should be an issue in this case, whether the
law supports this notion I have no idea.

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Peroni
>This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all
appropriate steps to protect our IP.

So only half the battle won then.

~~~
JNRowe
It feels weird replying like this to someone in the UK(according to your
profile), but...

Since the original story broke I've been thinking that I would have granted
the Candy trademark, but perhaps I'm being too short sighted.

To my British ear candy isn't a common word at all. I say this understanding
that the word is common in American English(candy store, candy bar, etc).

The only candy usage examples I can think of are the non-hyphenated
Candyfloss(Cotton Candy to Americans), and the even weaker related use as a
process as in "candied fruit".

 _Please_ point out that I'm wrong. It has been niggling me for a couple of
weeks now, and I suspect I must just be looking at this the wrong way.

Edit: Remembered Candyfloss → Cotton Candy the moment I hit send.

~~~
Nursie
Candy is indeed uncommon here, but not unheard of. You'll find it on
confectionary packaging to describe the contents. There's also a chain of
stores in London (elsewhere now?) called Cyber Candy that sell exotic (OK so
mostly american) candy.

So it is in some use, but not _that_ common.

Personally I object to anyone that tries to trademark a single word of our
shared language. They shouldn't be able to fence bits off like that, they
should have to make up their own word if they want it trademarked.

~~~
JNRowe
Good example for me with Cyber Candy, I've walked by one countless times but
didn't think of it.

I'll make a U-turn here and say that I agree with you about using made up
words, but for a different reason. I'd probably rather see random non-word
brands like PreBarpTzoh, than keep having to remember region specific names
for trademark reasons. Lynx/Axe is the example that immediately springs to
mind, a future Candy Mush Tiger and <insert non-EU name> could be another.

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Simp
Too bad they still won the battle for the 'saga' trademark.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-
crush-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-crush-saga-
tries-to-crush-the-banner-saga-in-bizarre-trademark-saga/)

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kej
Did they actually win that? The USPTO shows an active trademark record for The
Banner Saga and I couldn't find a generic "saga" mark for King.com, but I
don't really know enough about the system to be sure of what I'm seeing.

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devindotcom
They abandoned it _in the US_ because they purchased the rights to the "Candy
Crusher" trademark — a game which came out before Candy Swipe and protects
King against trademark attacks from that front. They are still pursuing
"Candy" in the EU.

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bigtunacan
It's just unbelievable King is able to get trademarks through on this garbage.

Square's ongoing SaGa series has been around since the late 80's.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaGa_%28series%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaGa_%28series%29)

Then there was Panzer Dragoon Saga, Lego Star Wars : The Complete Saga. Surely
there are more.

Ridiculous

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ripter
I don't understand why people got so mad at King for this. People complained
at all the Flappy Bird clones. That is exactly why King was trying to protect
the candy trademark. King was just doing that the law requires them to do in
order to protect their trademark and prevent thousands of clones trying to
cash in on the candy trademark.

~~~
rambojohnson
there's a big difference between cloning the likeness of an entire game vs.
having a game that bares no resemblance to another game other than the name of
it...

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fennecfoxen
You mean like "All Candy Casino Slots – Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania
Land"?

ooh, looks like they replaced 'candy' with 'sugar':
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-sugar-casino-slots-
jewel...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-sugar-casino-slots-
jewels/id788815470?mt=8)

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rachellaw
Didn't they try to trademark 'saga' at some point too? Complaining that Viking
Saga was a copy of their game? This whole trademark of _common English terms_
is going to ruin the industry

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dblacc
Will be interesting to see their actions in Europe from now.

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zacinbusiness
I wonder if their IP lawyers still got paid.

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DannyBee
The amount they got paid for this was probably not worth the energy they put
into it.

(as a side, i'd love to see engineers account for their time in 5 minute
increments before complaining about lawyer billing practices. I would be
surprised if it wasn't the case that on a salary / number-of-hours-really-
worked-per-year, most IP lawyers make a lot less than most engineers)

~~~
zacinbusiness
It depends on my day and how hard I'm working as to how much I get paid per
hour. But then I've never worried too much about guiding wealth, so long as my
family is well provided for and happy. Maybe that's why I'm not wealthy :-)

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kaa2102
Sounds like a win for the good guys.

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intull
Phew! There's no "king" for "candy" now.

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gr3yh47
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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jbeja
Thanks god!.

