Home Gaming King’s “Candy” crushing saga continues

King’s “Candy” crushing saga continues

2 min read
18

Now the second most hated King.

Candy Swipe is not, as you might be instantly led to believe, a clone of the now infamous Candy Crush Saga. It’s a match 3 game, yes, so it has a similar premise and eerily similar artwork. But it actually predates Candy Crush Saga by two years. Still, Candy Crush Saga developer King’s lawyers are trying to shut it down. Albert Ransom, the developer, wrote an open letter to King.com on his site, detailing his story.

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“Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia,” he says, tugging at heartstrings. “I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the android game, you will still get the message saying “…the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla…”

He says that he attempted to block Candy Crush Saga’s trademark application in 2012, but his battle has been fruitless. and now, he’s likely going to lose the rights to his own game.

. So when you attempted to register your trademark in 2012, I opposed it for “likelihood of confusion” (which is within my legal right) given I filed for my registered trademark back in 2010 (two years before Candy Crush Saga existed). Now, after quietly battling this trademark opposition for a year, I have learned that you now want to cancel my CandySwipe trademark so that I don’t have the right to use my own game’s name. You are able to do this because only within the last month you purchased the rights to a game named Candy Crusher (which is nothing like CandySwipe or even Candy Crush Saga). Good for you, you win. I hope you’re happy taking the food out of my family’s mouth when CandySwipe clearly existed well before Candy Crush Saga.

Funny, because King.com recently said that it was doing all of this trademark nonsense to protect its hard work. Seems they don’t care about others’  hard work.

This also contradicts your recent quote by Riccardo in “An open letter on intellectual property” posted on your website which states, “We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large – have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create.”

Go on, pull the other one.

Last Updated: February 13, 2014

18 Comments

  1. VampyreSquirrel

    February 13, 2014 at 12:05

    King.com needs to go get a life. This game was around long before their game, and now they want to shut it down? Really? WTF is wrong with these people?

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 13, 2014 at 12:14

      Money

      Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    February 13, 2014 at 12:13

    After reading this and seeing how Candy Crush obviously ripped the idea off some other developer I cant imagine any one reading this story still being able to play Candy Crush or even spend a cent on microtransactions. This is sick and perverted to an extent where I choke on my bile.

    But it’s like they say. In war those who survive are heroes and those who die are villains. Years and years from now King will still be around but Albert Ransom will be remembered as some money hungry bum who wanted to cash in on Candy Crushes enormous success

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      February 13, 2014 at 12:33

      I’m addicted.. I can’t stop no matter how evil they are..

      Reply

      • VampyreSquirrel

        February 13, 2014 at 12:42

        I shook my addiction and replaced it with Terraria and this damned MineCraft server.

        Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 13, 2014 at 12:50

        I’m not judging or looking down on people or saying that my morale is better, but as a person I just cant support them in any manner.

        Reply

  3. Umar Reborn

    February 13, 2014 at 12:13

    Piss off king.com, seriously your game, it sucks, sucks hard.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 13, 2014 at 12:15

      Seriously, I want to see a court take away Alberts right to his own game.

      Reply

      • Umar Reborn

        February 13, 2014 at 12:17

        Man, such justice. I would love that. Would honestly do a happy dance for that

        Reply

  4. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    February 13, 2014 at 12:20

    There is something fundementaly wrong with King. Surely this kind of patent bullying is not actually legal?

    Reply

    • HvR

      February 13, 2014 at 12:22

      What is legal and not is in direct correlation to the amount you pay your lawyers.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        February 13, 2014 at 12:35

        it’s sickening. Those with money can just bully their way through everything and the average person gets shafted

        Reply

        • HvR

          February 13, 2014 at 12:39

          Sadly I have been on the receiving end of this as an employee of a company who developed and built their own products in SA for SA. Went real well then a “BEE consortium” stole a few contracts due to better ratings used that money to directly copy the products and made them for half price in China.

          Few years later company and its factory with the 500+ employees closed down.

          Since the guys who did copying and producing was in China you have to take them on in Chinese courts to stop them which is almost impossible.

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            February 13, 2014 at 12:42

            That sucks man. What product?

  5. HvR

    February 13, 2014 at 12:21

    Sadly this has been the state of affairs for a long regarding IP rights.

    It isn’t about who created and is the rightful owner of the property but who can pay his lawyer the most.

    All the big guys (M$, Sony, Apple, etc) have been guilty of this.

    Reply

  6. TiMsTeR1033

    February 13, 2014 at 12:24

    Now wouldn’t it be nice if Candyswipe counter sues candycrush and takes them to the cleaners also using the mother story to pull on the juries heart strings.

    Reply

  7. Rock789

    February 13, 2014 at 13:59

    There are low-lifes… There are scum… There is that white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you’re thirsty… And then there is King.com!

    Reply

  8. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    February 13, 2014 at 14:45

    This is more vile than EA.

    Reply

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