7 ms·

Candy Crush creator abandons 'candy' trademark efforts

147 points by bpierre 13y ago

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
intull 13y ago
Phew! There's no "king" for "candy" now.
- gr3yh47 13y ago
  (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
dblacc 13y ago
Will be interesting to see their actions in Europe from now.
Peroni 13y ago
>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.
- Bahamut 13y ago
  Yep, so it's still crappy.
- JNRowe 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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 13y ago
      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.
  - showdead 13y ago
    This is one of the points where British English and American English diverge. Candy in the US is the generic word with the identical meaning as what in the UK is just called "sweets". Same thing as trousers / pants, although not quite as amusing.
  - pbhjpbhj 13y ago
    >To my British ear candy isn't a common word at all. // It's pretty common but not to refer to hard boiled or jelly sweets. It has been co-opted, by analogy with sweets, to refer to a particular colour palette - as such is often used when referencing that (eg in cosmetics); you'll probably recall the candy-coloured iMacs. It's not however commonality in general parlance that is the relevant measure - candy is and has been used in video games for a while to refer to brightly coloured shapes. King's use (since 2012) isn't original and so isn't distinctive enough to indicate the origin of computing products [and others in the relevant TM classification areas] bearing the title "Candy" is King.com, Ltd.. If it were on commonality in street parlance then candy would be pretty common among younger generations that are more influenced by USA culture. Saga? They might as well apply for "game" as an RTM.
zacinbusiness 13y ago
I wonder if their IP lawyers still got paid.
- thesis 13y ago
  I'm not sure if this is sarcasm or not.... but of course they did.
- DannyBee 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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 :-)
jbeja 13y ago
Thanks god!.
chrisbennet 13y ago
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-stealing-from-indie-developer-4275642/ http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/24/candy-crush-maker-accused-of-s...
- deletes 13y ago
  That is not true. Did you read your link?
  - gr3yh47 13y ago
    he used a poor link for it, but that doesn't make it untrue - it is indeed true, their game is a blatant copy of candy swipe http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/13/candy-crush-saga-makers-to-sue-game-they-copied-4303096/ http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/13/candy-crush-saga-makers-to-sue...
    - ama729 13y ago
      No it's not. Lets recap the CandySwipe Saga[1]: - The creator does exactly the same thing than most people accused King.com of doing: Ie. blocking someone's trademark application because they both have the same word in it (here "Candy"). - They both have a blue "circle" as an icon (I'm sorry, but the others one have nothing in common except they are all candies, somehow) - The games have very little in common mechanically. CandySwipe is about selecting multiple adjacent candies while Candy Crush is about permuting multiple candies so you can make combos. Because, yes, these games have really nothing in common, except they are about candies. If anything, the only one who could have something of a claim is Bejeweled's creator, Pop-Cap. If anything, Albert Ransom (who got quite the name here), only got what he was asking for when King bought Candy Crusher and so had a legitimate response, since Candy Crusher is older than CandySwipe. King.com is certainly not a saint, but Ransom is just freeriding here because he got a good story. [1] I had to do this one :p
    - chops 13y ago
      Candy crush is a match-3 game like bejeweled, while candyswipe is a "draw an unbroken path on similar things" game. The game play is a different mechanism. Though the graphical and stylistic similarities are there, I'd hardly call it a clone. (not that I'm defending King in their douchebag tactics)
Simp 13y ago
Too bad they still won the battle for the 'saga' trademark. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-crush-saga-tries-to-crush-the-banner-saga-in-bizarre-trademark-saga/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-crush-...
- kej 13y ago
  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.
ripter 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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...
  - chadillac 13y ago
    My new game "Cut the Flappy Candy Saga-ville" will be coming to the market soon... it's just a calculator with banner ads.
  - fennecfoxen 13y ago
    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-jewels/id788815470?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-sugar-casino-slots-jewel...
- tedajax 13y ago
  Trademark isn't about people making clones of your game. In this case Trademark is about people confusing the title of your game with another game because they use the same name. Trademarking "Candy Crush Saga" makes sense because that's the full name of the game and is not a common word or phrase. Trademarking "Candy" is absurd. This means any game that has the world candy in it is suddenly subject to litigation by King. Candy is a common word, and I could have a game called Unicorn Candy Attack and clearly that's not going to cause confusion with Candy Crush Saga.
- schnevets 13y ago
  Who is complaining about the Flappy Bird clones? If the creator hadn't pulled the app, he still would have been printing out money for the foreseeable future, so I doubt he's enraged about people profiting from the idea. Out of those thousands of clones, the new winner won't be the app that carbon copies Flappy Bird most effectively, it's going to be an app that builds on the idea. If King.com, with their newfound millions, can't build a superior product to some poser "Sweets Smash Story", then they don't deserve to stay on top of the App Charts.
devindotcom 13y ago
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.
kaa2102 13y ago
Sounds like a win for the good guys.
bigtunacan 13y ago
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
rachellaw 13y ago
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

147 points by bpierre 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

intull 13y ago

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

gr3yh47 13y ago
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

dblacc 13y ago

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

Peroni 13y ago

>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.

Bahamut 13y ago
Yep, so it's still crappy.
JNRowe 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.
- showdead 13y ago
  This is one of the points where British English and American English diverge. Candy in the US is the generic word with the identical meaning as what in the UK is just called "sweets". Same thing as trousers / pants, although not quite as amusing.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago
  >To my British ear candy isn't a common word at all. // It's pretty common but not to refer to hard boiled or jelly sweets. It has been co-opted, by analogy with sweets, to refer to a particular colour palette - as such is often used when referencing that (eg in cosmetics); you'll probably recall the candy-coloured iMacs. It's not however commonality in general parlance that is the relevant measure - candy is and has been used in video games for a while to refer to brightly coloured shapes. King's use (since 2012) isn't original and so isn't distinctive enough to indicate the origin of computing products [and others in the relevant TM classification areas] bearing the title "Candy" is King.com, Ltd.. If it were on commonality in street parlance then candy would be pretty common among younger generations that are more influenced by USA culture. Saga? They might as well apply for "game" as an RTM.

zacinbusiness 13y ago

I wonder if their IP lawyers still got paid.

thesis 13y ago
I'm not sure if this is sarcasm or not.... but of course they did.
DannyBee 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 :-)

jbeja 13y ago

Thanks god!.

chrisbennet 13y ago

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-stealing-from-indie-developer-4275642/ http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/24/candy-crush-maker-accused-of-s...

deletes 13y ago
That is not true. Did you read your link?
- gr3yh47 13y ago
  he used a poor link for it, but that doesn't make it untrue - it is indeed true, their game is a blatant copy of candy swipe http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/13/candy-crush-saga-makers-to-sue-game-they-copied-4303096/ http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/13/candy-crush-saga-makers-to-sue...
  - ama729 13y ago
    No it's not. Lets recap the CandySwipe Saga[1]: - The creator does exactly the same thing than most people accused King.com of doing: Ie. blocking someone's trademark application because they both have the same word in it (here "Candy"). - They both have a blue "circle" as an icon (I'm sorry, but the others one have nothing in common except they are all candies, somehow) - The games have very little in common mechanically. CandySwipe is about selecting multiple adjacent candies while Candy Crush is about permuting multiple candies so you can make combos. Because, yes, these games have really nothing in common, except they are about candies. If anything, the only one who could have something of a claim is Bejeweled's creator, Pop-Cap. If anything, Albert Ransom (who got quite the name here), only got what he was asking for when King bought Candy Crusher and so had a legitimate response, since Candy Crusher is older than CandySwipe. King.com is certainly not a saint, but Ransom is just freeriding here because he got a good story. [1] I had to do this one :p
  - chops 13y ago
    Candy crush is a match-3 game like bejeweled, while candyswipe is a "draw an unbroken path on similar things" game. The game play is a different mechanism. Though the graphical and stylistic similarities are there, I'd hardly call it a clone. (not that I'm defending King in their douchebag tactics)

Simp 13y ago

Too bad they still won the battle for the 'saga' trademark. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-crush-saga-tries-to-crush-the-banner-saga-in-bizarre-trademark-saga/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/01/23/candy-crush-...

kej 13y ago
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.

ripter 13y ago

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 13y ago
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...
- chadillac 13y ago
  My new game "Cut the Flappy Candy Saga-ville" will be coming to the market soon... it's just a calculator with banner ads.
- fennecfoxen 13y ago
  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-jewels/id788815470?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/all-sugar-casino-slots-jewel...
tedajax 13y ago
Trademark isn't about people making clones of your game. In this case Trademark is about people confusing the title of your game with another game because they use the same name. Trademarking "Candy Crush Saga" makes sense because that's the full name of the game and is not a common word or phrase. Trademarking "Candy" is absurd. This means any game that has the world candy in it is suddenly subject to litigation by King. Candy is a common word, and I could have a game called Unicorn Candy Attack and clearly that's not going to cause confusion with Candy Crush Saga.
schnevets 13y ago
Who is complaining about the Flappy Bird clones? If the creator hadn't pulled the app, he still would have been printing out money for the foreseeable future, so I doubt he's enraged about people profiting from the idea. Out of those thousands of clones, the new winner won't be the app that carbon copies Flappy Bird most effectively, it's going to be an app that builds on the idea. If King.com, with their newfound millions, can't build a superior product to some poser "Sweets Smash Story", then they don't deserve to stay on top of the App Charts.

devindotcom 13y ago

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.

kaa2102 13y ago

Sounds like a win for the good guys.

bigtunacan 13y ago

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

rachellaw 13y ago

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