Home Gaming Don’t blame King, blame trademark law

Don’t blame King, blame trademark law

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Recently, Candy Crush Saga developer King,.com has been in the news for its aggressive protection of its its trademark. Many, including us, have seen this as bullying – but there’s really much more to it than that. They’re not on some sort of crazy power trip, where they believe they own the sole rights to us use the words “Candy” or “Saga.“ Mostly, they’re just trying to protect themselves from future copycats.

US IP and trademark  Law is a strange thing, based mostly around precedent. The big issue here, and why King’s lawyers have been so busy lately, is that if King.com hasn’t been seen to be enforcing their trademark, they could end up effectively losing it. It’s very much the same thing that happened with Bethesda and Mojang’s Scrolls. Bethesda’s lawyers had to be seen to be making noise about a potential violation of their trademark.

It’s all rather silly, and King has released a statement about it all, so that people people stop vilifying them.

"King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content. However, like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future.

"In this case, that means preserving our ability to enforce our rights in cases where other developers may try to use the Saga mark in a way which infringes our IP rights and causes player confusion. If we had not opposed Banner Saga’s trade mark application, it would be much easier for real copy cats to argue that their use of "Saga" was legitimate.

"This is an important issue for King because we already have a series of games where "Saga" is key to the brand which our players associate with a King game; Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and so on. All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones. "

The unfortunate reality of it is that if King.com wasn’t posturing as they are now, they’d lose the right to stop people from cloning their games, or develop games with eerily similar names; and we’d have appstores filled with rubbish like Sweet Stomping Saga, Marshmallow Mashing Saga or Honey Hammering Saga or god just kill me now.

If you want to be angry at King, be angry at them for making crap, albeit addictive games that litter your Facebook feed with endless invites and requests.

Last Updated: January 23, 2014

38 Comments

  1. Jaded_Reprobate

    January 23, 2014 at 10:33

    don’t you mean god just kill me now saga?

    Reply

  2. Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

    January 23, 2014 at 10:46

    I honestly still see this as wrong and I will be angry at King.com. It’s a fucking word for god’s sake….What the hell?? If they should release a new Panzer Dragoon Saga, then what? So it’s okay to go after Banner Saga so that it’s easier to fight copycats down the line. Show my Authoritaaaay! That’s bullshit man….This is bullying. Abusing the system! Know whats the kicker? what really REALLY Pisses me of…They want to protect their IP?? Candy Crush is a fucking rip off of Bejeweled!!!!!…….I will never ever play this off as it’s okay, they just protecting themselves right?….These greedy bastards are what’s wrong with this damn industry

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 23, 2014 at 10:54

      Hehe if you go to King.com you can play Candy Crush in your browser with 10 gold being sold at R10.88 and 500 gold going for R544.07 also buying a life costs 12 gold if you run out (just to replay a level) or you can ask your facebook friends

      Reply

      • Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

        January 23, 2014 at 10:55

        SIES!!!! God…this is a drug! People pay for these things….I’m ashamed to be a human and be associated with these people

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 23, 2014 at 10:56

          Agreed, if I had a chance to go on that ship to colonize Mars I would pack my bags today.

          Reply

    • Weanerdog

      January 23, 2014 at 11:26

      As far as I understand it the onus now lies on Banner Saga to prove that it doesn’t infringe on the Candy Crush Saga’s trademark and then they will be permitted to use the name and in fact trademark it.

      Reply

      • Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

        January 23, 2014 at 11:26

        But that sucks that they have to prove that

        Reply

        • Weanerdog

          January 23, 2014 at 11:33

          Should not be that difficult to prove, however there is a cost involved which sucks.

          Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    January 23, 2014 at 10:47

    I heard their next game is called Microtransaction Saga

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

      January 23, 2014 at 10:57

      Trademark Saga. A game where you need to create as much pointless noise about how other completely unrelated things have a single word in their name that is the same as your profile name. You get bonus points for having a long name with common words in it (can’t use Candy or Saga).

      I would set my profile name to Like Face Look Book Game Mail King Law Fred Eagle Hawk…

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 23, 2014 at 10:58

        You forgot Saga 😛
        * oh wait I see now…

        Reply

        • Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

          January 23, 2014 at 11:01

          Can’t use Saga or Candy as those are already trademarked.
          You would immediately lose the game and have to pay a microtransaction fine.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 23, 2014 at 11:03

            Yeah I didn’t read that. Need to pay a fine now :'(

          • TiMsTeR1033

            January 23, 2014 at 11:05

            That will be $200 sir

          • Hammersteyn

            January 23, 2014 at 11:06

            For King.com that’s rather generous.

  4. Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

    January 23, 2014 at 10:52

    The first I heard about it being called Candy Crush Saga was when this whole thing started.
    Before then I just thought it was called Candy Crush and I’m sure I’m not the only person who thought that.

    Reply

  5. Alien Emperor Trevor

    January 23, 2014 at 10:57

    Sorry I don’t buy that. It’s illogical to say if you don’t threaten Banner Saga, CLEARLY something utterly different to Candy Crush Saga, that you then can’t protect yourself from a clear imitator playing on your name. Especially considering that saga is a common use English word. If that were the case we would have run out of words to create titles for new games, books, movies, songs, etc decades ago. If this really is how the law works, it’s really stupid.

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

      January 23, 2014 at 11:00

      It’s more of a screw up in the trademark laws. Those laws were probably created 30 or more years ago and never updated.

      Reply

      • Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

        January 23, 2014 at 11:01

        Sure enough we can blame the law. But taking advantage of a broken system is just as evil

        Reply

        • Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

          January 23, 2014 at 11:05

          They’re defense is that if they don’t someone else will take advantage of the broken system.

          I still don’t agree with this though.
          I should probably see about trademarking Kensei Seraph before someone else does…

          Reply

          • Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

            January 23, 2014 at 11:08

            My brain still can’t accept it. Trademark your name before you get serrrrved

          • Kensei Seraph Moe Ninja

            January 23, 2014 at 11:10

            While I’m at it maybe I should trademark some other things…

    • Weanerdog

      January 23, 2014 at 11:28

      Just lawyers needing a new Ferrari so fear mongering their clients.

      Reply

  6. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    January 23, 2014 at 10:59

    Why not just create *good* games that are difficult to emulate?

    Reply

    • Umar Break Dancing Cyborg

      January 23, 2014 at 10:59

      This

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 23, 2014 at 11:02

      Because the mobile market (most of them) wants junk food for their brains while on the crapper or on the bus. This is why consoles doesn’t get movie games about Thor,Hulk or Iron Man anymore. They go straight to mobile. The games are short,shit,cheap to make and monotonous plus you don’t have to put it on a disk.

      Reply

      • TiMsTeR1033

        January 23, 2014 at 11:05

        Candy crush is a game for the crapper, plain and simple.. Which means it’s a crap game, made by crap people, who don’t give a crap about ripping people off and trying to own words so that other people can’t make the same crap as they make.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 23, 2014 at 11:06

          And all this happens while taking a crap.

          Reply

          • TiMsTeR1033

            January 23, 2014 at 11:06

            exactly!

  7. Gerhard Davids

    January 23, 2014 at 10:59

    Riiight. This is why they are already going after completely unrelated games with their trademarks. Bullshit PR lies.

    Reply

  8. TiMsTeR1033

    January 23, 2014 at 11:00

    time to take out King Candy!

    Reply

  9. TiMsTeR1033

    January 23, 2014 at 11:01

    I have played Candy crush for about 5 min and basically I don’t understand the addiction its basically the same as bejewel.

    Reply

  10. TiMsTeR1033

    January 23, 2014 at 11:09

    hahaha

    Reply

  11. TiMsTeR1033

    January 23, 2014 at 11:11

    *ponders* how many people are playing Candy crush right now while reading this article..

    Reply

  12. Weanerdog

    January 23, 2014 at 11:23

    Candy Crush Saga is such a silly name. The name would be much more suited to a point and click adventure about trying to woo a young dancer at your local strip club.

    Reply

  13. Brian Murphy

    January 23, 2014 at 13:36

    “If you want to be angry at King, be angry at them for making crap, albeit addictive games that litter your Facebook feed with endless invites and requests.”

    Which is why I use Google+

    Reply

  14. Verrayne

    January 23, 2014 at 13:51

    A prose narrative usually written in Iceland between 1120 and 1400, dealing with the families that first settled Iceland and their descendants, with the histories of the kings of Norway, and with the myths and legends of early Germanic gods and heroes.

    That’s what the word Saga means. So tell me which have a bigger claim on the word, candy crush saga or the banner saga?

    Reply

  15. Kromas

    January 23, 2014 at 14:55

    I have a Star Wars:Episode 1.The Phantom menace poster that reads “The Saga Begins” Quickly king go sue Disney!!!

    Reply

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