Candy Crush and CandySwipe Settle Their Dispute - Update

[Andy Chalk]

Candy Crush and CandySwipe Settle Their Dispute - Update

The maker of CandySwipe has announced that he has "amicably resolved" his trademark dispute with Candy Crush Saga studio King.

Update: Stoic, the maker of The Banner Saga, has also settled its dispute with King, and actually did so ahead of the CandySwipe settlement. In a statement [http://stoicstudio.com/stoic-update] released late last month, the studio said, "Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future."

Original Story: King hasn't exactly employed a light and discretionary touch in the defense of its Candy Crush Saga trademark, but even in that less-than-flattering light its handling of CandySwipe maker Albert Ransom was equal parts brazen and nasty. Ransom's trademark on CandySwipe preceded King's claim on Candy Crush Saga, and because his game was demonstrably suffering from confusion with King's (and perhaps inspired by King's own readiness to file infringement claims), he took action to defend his mark.

King's response was both ruthless and ingenious: It acquired the rights to CandyCrusher, a game that predates CandySwipe, and then used the ownership of that game to argue that Ransom should lose his trademark. Unable to compete with King's multi-million-dollar war chest, Ransom gave in, although he did not go quietly [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132196-CandySwipe-Developer-Surrenders-to-King-in-Rage-Filled-Open-Letter], and his open letter to the studio only darkened its already bruised reputation.

But now it seems as though he's managed to work out some kind of happy ending, or at least one he can live with. "I am happy to announce that I have amicably resolved my dispute with King over my CandySwipe trademark and that I am withdrawing my opposition to their mark and they are withdrawing their counterclaim against mine," Ransom wrote in a statement posted on CandySwipe.com.

"I have learned that they picked the CANDY CRUSH name before I released my game and that they were never trying to take my game away," the statement says. "Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players."

Ransom had recently launched a Gamezebo [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/runsome/candyswipe-30], it was done "in good faith" as he tried to reach a settlement with King. And while it sounds like all of this sound and fury has resulted in nothing more than headaches and a return to the status quo, at least Ransom gets to maintain his trademark - and hopefully he'll reap some benefits from the publicity surrounding the case, too.

Source: CandySwipe [http://candyswipe.com/king.html]


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[Frezzato]

Thank goodness that's settled. Now I can get back to hating King and everything they do, all the while laughing at every misfortune they encounter. See you in hell, King!

 

[Talaris]

If i ever met a higher up King.com employee I would laugh in their stupid little face for being part of an organization that was beyond a joke. I don't know how they can't spontaneously die of shame.

Funny thing for me is the Technical Director of the company I work for left last year to work for a social mobiles company as a senior director. Just last week I found out that it was in fact King.com , and whilst I really liked the guy, and presume that other employee's at King must be decent people too, I can't help but lose most of my respect that I had for him. Even though he won't be making business decisions, I would presume he would know of the company's ethics ad chose to work for them anyway, which to me is just sad.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Why do I get the feeling he had to say that line in the last paragraph as part of the settlement. Didn't King file their original Candy Crush trademark a year after his game's trademark? They might have started working on it long before that, but that doesn't mean they can say they own all rights until they file. Plenty of inventors have filed for a patent to find a week before an extremely similar device was just patented. There's also scandals and corruption in that subject, too, but that's going off topic.

At least it's over. Maybe Ransom is armed with some more legal knowledge to take preventative actions and defend his next IP when the next slimy company spots its next victim.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Why do I get the feeling he had to say that line in the last paragraph as part of the settlement.

We'll probably never know. Settlements like this typically include gag orders all around, so everyone can say they're happy with the outcome but nobody can say why. This case is somewhat unique, since Ransom had already thrown in the towel, which could lead one to think that the whole thing is a PR exercise for King; but even if that's the case, hopefully it is a better outcome for Ransom than what he was looking at last month, and that his happiness with the settlement isn't entirely forced.