Candy Crush Saga Studio Trademarks the Word "Candy"

[J Tyran]

Mixed feelings about this, trademarking the word "candy" is obviously stupid but on the other hand I can see why a mobile publisher would try this. Clone games with clone names are a big thing, its basically ripping off another game wholesale and just changing a few details and then giving it a similar name.

Imagine the shitstorm we would have if Medal of Honour had been called "Tour of Duty" or there was a 3rd person spectacle fighter called "Demigod of War" and 3rd person shooter called "Cogs of War", we would soon see publishers taking all kinds of petty steps to try and stop it and to a certain extent its understandable.

If a another mobile developer has a genuinely different game they have good cause for complaint but I have little sympathy for any with a clone game.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Watching King's progression as a game company is like watching an accelerated version of Zynga. They're already well into the blatant rip-off and obsessive copyright phase of the inevitable meltdown.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

So tell me what happens when Hasbro tries to put a CandyLand game up on the appstore?

Hopefully Hasbro crushes them into teeny tiny pieces and the same thing happens to this company that happened to the Edge guy.

 

[James Crook]

I remember discovering these guys were behind the adtrack.king adware popups that open up the App Store/Google Play Store on mobile devices, that bring you to their game's download page without your consent.
King became, very quickly, a big bag of dicks.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Just doing a quick search of the Google Play store, There are at least 200 games not made by King that have the word "Candy" in the title.

If they push this and get away with it, that's over 200 games they don't need to worry about competing with.

 

[EcnoTheNeato]

Mixed feelings about this, trademarking the word "candy" is obviously stupid but on the other hand I can see why a mobile publisher would try this. Clone games with clone names are a big thing, its basically ripping off another game wholesale and just changing a few details and then giving it a similar name.

Imagine the shitstorm we would have if Medal of Honour had been called "Tour of Duty" or there was a 3rd person spectacle fighter called "Demigod of War" and 3rd person shooter called "Cogs of War", we would soon see publishers taking all kinds of petty steps to try and stop it and to a certain extent its understandable.

If a another mobile developer has a genuinely different game they have good cause for complaint but I have little sympathy for any with a clone game.

I felt that way, too, but then I realized that this article was about Candy Crush trying to force "All Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land" to change their name...Maybe if it was something like "Candied Crushers" or "Candy Stomp." But come on! This seems like the typical case of big company just trying to muscle over smaller ones, and has very little to do actual idea/product protection

 

[Qage]

Why in the hell is this an actual thing that is allowed to happen? Does this mean that JK Rowling could copyright words like Potter?

In all seriousness, I don't even see why they're trying to valiantly defend their game so much, it's not like it's any kind of good in the first place.

 

[revjay]

Next up, Iggy Pop singing his hit song "sweetened confectionery treat". This is just.. sad.

 

[J Tyran]

Mixed feelings about this, trademarking the word "candy" is obviously stupid but on the other hand I can see why a mobile publisher would try this. Clone games with clone names are a big thing, its basically ripping off another game wholesale and just changing a few details and then giving it a similar name.

Imagine the shitstorm we would have if Medal of Honour had been called "Tour of Duty" or there was a 3rd person spectacle fighter called "Demigod of War" and 3rd person shooter called "Cogs of War", we would soon see publishers taking all kinds of petty steps to try and stop it and to a certain extent its understandable.

If a another mobile developer has a genuinely different game they have good cause for complaint but I have little sympathy for any with a clone game.

I felt that way, too, but then I realized that this article was about Candy Crush trying to force "All Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land" to change their name...Maybe if it was something like "Candied Crushers" or "Candy Stomp." But come on! This seems like the typical case of big company just trying to muscle over smaller ones, and has very little to do actual idea/product protection

In this case its bullshit, although isn't failing to protect a trademark good grounds for future challenges to a trademark? In this case though its obvious, hopefully the guy behind the game can get a pro-bono solicitor or a good one for a decent price because I cannot see many judges upholding this.

 

[EcnoTheNeato]

In this case its bullshit, although isn't failing to protect a trademark good grounds for future challenges to a trademark? In this case though its obvious, hopefully the guy behind the game can get a pro-bono solicitor or a good one for a decent price because I cannot see many judges upholding this.

If I were an Indie developer, I'd crowd-source for lawyer funding :-D "Help us fund our lawyer through our IndieGoGo account to crush the Candy overlord regime!"

 

[Vigormortis]

Ladies and gentlemen, Exhibit A as to why copyright/trademark/etc laws in the United States is garbage that needs to be fixed.

When someone can put a trademark on a word as oft-used as "candy"....that's pretty ridiculous.

Are you kidding?

In the past few years Apple trademarked "page turning", attempted to trademark the letter "i', and even trademarked a fucking geometric shape [http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/apple-awarded-design-patent-for-actual-rounded-rectangle/].

King trademarking the word "candy" is barely a drop in the roiling see of shit that is trademark/copyright laws.

 

[RandV80]

The only thing certain here is the lawyers are going to be making a lot of money.

Sometimes I wonder if that isn't the intention with our bullshit copyright/trademark/etc laws.

 

[Epicspoon]

I think I'm going to trademark "The" "A" "And" and "Of"

I bet that I could get away with it.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Imagine the shitstorm we would have if Medal of Honour had been called "Tour of Duty" or there was a 3rd person spectacle fighter called "Demigod of War" and 3rd person shooter called "Cogs of War", we would soon see publishers taking all kinds of petty steps to try and stop it and to a certain extent its understandable.

Just a correction: Medal of Honor came first, and Call of Duty arose from developers who had worked on Medal of Honor leaving it to start their own FPS, although the departure of the Medal of Honor "reboot" from everything the games previously were to become a second rate COD clone is blatantly obvious for anyone with eyes that at least partially function.

Also why are no politicians ever discussing copyright law, somebody get Jon Stewart and tell him to research this stuff, raise a bit of stink to get it in the public conscience.

 

[J Tyran]

Just a correction: Medal of Honor came first,

My bad, I knew that and I should have known better than to make it absolutely clear that I was referring to the recent Medal of Honour games. There would always be some helpful person come along and find that flaw in my comment.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Well, I was going to tell everyone how I wanted to eat a bit of leftover Christmas candy, but if I say anything else I may bet sued. I guess I will just have to use the word sweets now. :/

In all seriousness I doubt this will stand for long, sooner or later a court will strike down having a word like candy being trademarked. They just need a company like Hershey's or Nestle who actually have the funds to stop this tomfoolery.

 

[Vigormortis]

Pretty sure it goes without saying these days that Apple is king of the patent trolls, but apparently people still feel the need to emphasize it anyways.

Apple being the top of the line doesn't make this example any less of a valid example of the problems with trademark law, however, so I don't know why this matters.

Never said it wasn't valid. Pretty sure the idea of it's validity never once crossed my mind.

My point was: King's trademarking of the word "candy" is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg that is the bullshit surrounding trademarking laws.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I wasn't saying you were "wrong". I was just adding that there are even more extreme examples of how ridiculous the laws are. I actually agreed with you.[footnote]Though perhaps I should reword my response to make that more clear.[/footnote]

Besides, the fact that Apple still holds patents on things like basic geometric shapes and screen-swipe animations gives people every right to continually bring them up in discussions on broken copyright laws.

 

[Strazdas]

FIrst thing after reading this article: deleting the game from my phone. I want nothing to do with company as shitty as this.

Imagine the shitstorm we would have if Medal of Honour had been called "Tour of Duty" or there was a 3rd person spectacle fighter called "Demigod of War" and 3rd person shooter called "Cogs of War", we would soon see publishers taking all kinds of petty steps to try and stop it and to a certain extent its understandable.

Been done in movie industry. Transmorfers. 10 million BC. basically half of the stuff Asylum Studio puts out is a attemtp to trick somone into thinking its big bdget movie. couple studios dragged them to court adn the judge just slapped them and said they arent breaking any copyrights with this.

Also why are no politicians ever discussing copyright law, somebody get Jon Stewart and tell him to research this stuff, raise a bit of stink to get it in the public conscience.

because there is noone paying them to? politicians only do what the highest bribe giver tells them to. and its perfectly legal too, you call it lobbyism.