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Tag: King

  • King has bought an old trademark, and you’re not going to like how they’re using it
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    King has bought an old trademark, and you’re not going to like how they’re using it

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    Oops, they did it again. Back in January, Candy Crush Saga maker King underwent a great deal of public scrutiny about the choices they've made in the world of IP protection. Initially it was about a trademark on the word CANDY, but as the week unfolded it turned into a battle over Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, and then even accusations of cloning. King CEO Riccardo Zacconi managed to quell the internet's furor with a seemingly heartfelt response on the issues that had been brought up.But now some new information has been brought to our attention that doesn't quite jive with what Zacconi was preaching.Lost in the shuffle of that January week was a little story about Albert Ransom, the creator of CandySwipe. As the creator of a match-3 game involving candy that pre-dated every incarnation of Candy Crush, Ransom had been fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark for months. And he told Gamezebo that he intended to fight their mark on the word CANDY, too.Now, only weeks after our initial article, King is fighting back. 
  • The best games of #CandyJam (so far)
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    The best games of #CandyJam (so far)

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    After last week's debacle involving game developer King trademarking the word CANDY, game developers around the world vented their frustrations by participating in the Candy Jam, a game jam event designed solely to passive-aggressively taunt the trademark system as well as King's other embarrassment from last week, being accused of ripping off another developer's game. The Candy Jam website sets its mantra as: "Because trademarking common words is ridiculous, because ethics matter and because it gives us an occasion to make another game jam."Developers have since been working on creating their games, and uploading them to the Candy Jam website for others to check out. While the Candy Jam lasts through February 3rd, there are a good number of games already posted.One of the more polished games posted is Discord Games' Candy Chasm Saga, an endless-faller that involves falling down an chasm filled with candy, attempting to collect as much candy as possible while avoiding crashing into the scary-looking tokens floating about. Magnets are available to scoop up and make your candy-grabbing life easier, and golden apples provide limited invincibility. Candy Chasm Saga borrows art assets from Discord Games' full-time project, Chasm. 
  • CandySwipe: Already fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark, prepared to fight CANDY too
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    CandySwipe: Already fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark, prepared to fight CANDY too

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    Albert Ransom, the founder of Runsome Apps, first released CandySwipe to Android gamers on November 15, 2010 - a full four months before King debuted Candy Crush on King.com (now RoyalGames.com). Both games offer match-3 gameplay and both are built around a candy theme, but in our conversation with Ransom, he wasn't crying "clone." He's just worried about the same thing King is: consumer confusion."If you start typing 'is candy swip' into google, you will get the auto complete 'is candy swipe the same as candy crush'." It's a frustrating experience for a developer whose work came first and who, like King,  was quick to trademark. The CANDYSWIPE trademark was granted to Ransom in July 2011.But being first and having a mark isn't going to do much to sway public perception - especially when a similar competitor shoots to the top of the App Store."Their game (and name) closely resembles CandySwipe; so much so, that CandySwipe is often ridiculed as a Candy Crush knock off," says Ransom. "This infringes on OUR registered trademark and good will."
  • A story that King would like to Pac-Avoid: Scamperghost’s creator accuses King of cloning
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    A story that King would like to Pac-Avoid: Scamperghost’s creator accuses King of cloning

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    This week's news about King has really stirred the hornet's nest. Not only has their trademarking of CANDY ruffled a few feathers, and their dispute with The Banner Saga ruffled a few more, but other developers who feel they've previously been wronged by the company are seeing this as an opportunity to let their stories be told.Take Junkyard Sam for instance. Back in 2009, he and Nick Bray teamed up under the name Stolen Goose to make the Flash game Scamperghost. In a recent blog post, Sam explains how the company was in talks with King to publish the game, decided to go with a different publisher, and then quickly saw their game cloned and released on King.com under the name Pac-Avoid:"We were in talks with Lars Jörnow at King.com to license our Scamperghost game.  Before the deal was closed (and certainly before any contracts were signed) MaxGames.com made a better offer so we thanked King for considering our game and politely ended our negotiations. King.com (giant company) retaliated against us (two young indie devs) by quickly making a direct clone of our game and almost released it before us! We only got ours out sooner because a friend close with the company contacted us privately to warn us in advance..."
  • The Banner Saga’s ‘SAGA’ saga: Stoic Studio has responded to King’s statement
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    The Banner Saga’s ‘SAGA’ saga: Stoic Studio has responded to King’s statement

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    If you've been following King's trademark sideshow this week (and we know you have), there have been two interesting developments in the last 24 hours that you already know about. Last night, word broke that King was trying to use its IP law muscle to prevent Stoic Studio from using the word SAGA in The Banner Saga. And then this morning, King issued a statement responding to these allegations.This is where things get a little weird, because their response was basically "we're not trying to stop them from using the name, we've just filed a formal opposition with the US Trademark Office that says otherwise." More to the point, they said that if they don't exercise their claim in every instance than the mark on words like SAGA will lose its potency, and they'll have a hard time when it comes to fighting the real targets of their IP theft.It's an argument that's in complete contradiction with a statement they released earlier in the day. "We don't enforce against all uses… some are legitimate of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so."Methinks someone in King's PR department has a really short memory. 
  • King releases statement on their opposition to The Banner Saga
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    King releases statement on their opposition to The Banner Saga

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    In this week's ongoing saga about King and their controversial "trademark trolling" of common dictionary words- oops, I just said the "s" word in that last sentence, I hope I don't need to call a lawyer now. Anyway, after the whole CANDY debacle on Monday, the internet then learned that King was also targeting recent indie darling The Banner Saga from Stoic as well, with reports claiming that the Viking-themed SRPG infringed upon the way the word "Saga" is a known extension of many of King's popular gaming brands.As you might expect, this story about King attacking The Banner Saga quickly spread like a wildfire across the gaming world, forcing King's PR department to make yet another statement to try and clear up all of the negative press about them. Spoiler alert: people are still disgusted. The latest statement reads:""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.
  • 17 great Twitter reactions to King’s trademark craziness
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    17 great Twitter reactions to King’s trademark craziness

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    If there's one word that's on the tip of everybody's tongues this week, it's CANDY. King trademarked the word in the EU and is trying to do the same in the US, and the internet has exploded as a result.If you've ever wanted to see what an exploded internet looks like, you need look no further than Twitter. The community has been quite vocal about King's trademarking actions this week - many even going so far as to add CANDY to their Twitter name in protest - and the @#$torm hasn't died down yet.It's been only two days since King's maneuvers first came to light (and one day since we learned about their opposition to The Banner Saga's trademark). Here's the best of what the internet has had to say about it:
  • King is opposing Stoic’s trademark for The Banner Saga
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    King is opposing Stoic’s trademark for The Banner Saga

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    Remember when you learned that King has a trademark on the word CANDY? It probably won't surprise you to learn that this isn't the only one-word trademark they want to hold. They've also applied for the trademark on the word SAGA, and they're not afraid to defend what they see as rightfully theirs.USGamer's Mike Williams has just brought to light a legal opposition filed on behalf of King in regards to The Banner Saga - a recent release and Kickstarter success that we're delighted to call an early contender for Game of the Year.  You can find the complete Notice of Opposition at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, but the gist of it is this: Stoic, the makers of The Banner Saga, filed to trademark their game's name on January 10, 2013. After the mark was filed "published for opposition," King formally opposed. The argument King makes is that Stoic's use of the term SAGA will be enough to confuse customers into thinking the product isn't from Stoic, but from King. Furthermore, they claim that such confusion could result in damage to King.