King Has Trademarked the Word "Candy"

[Gahars]

King, if you're not in the know, is the developer of the popular Candy Crush Saga game for mobile devices (and Facebook) everywhere. You swine.

Like all companies, King wants to protect their property. That's pretty reasonable. Like all kings, however, they want total control over their subjects. This is a little less reasonable.

In a filing with the US trademark office dated February 6, 2013, King.com Limited registered claim to the word ‘candy’ as it pertains to video games and, strangely, clothing. On January 15, 2014 the filing was approved. And now, a mere five days later, reports are coming in from developers that they’re being asked to remove their app (or prove that their game doesn’t infringe upon the trademark).

“Lots of devs are frustrated cause it seems so ridiculous” says Benny Hsu, the maker of All Candy Casino Slots – Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land. Benny’s game, which shares no similarities with King’s properties aside from the word ‘candy,’ is one of a number of games that have been targeted by King.

GameZebo

Yeah, I know how it is. Today it's the video games and clothing, tomorrow it's the strippers and music. Somebody get Aaron Carter on the line, he needs to know!

Now for all the boring, bland caveats. Like the news blurb said, this is limited to the realm of video games and clothing (Because merchandising!). While all of this is in writing and on the books, continuing to enforce something like this might be another matter entirely. Plus, of course, candy companies can't be sued because "candy" is used to identify their product, not as a trademark.

Still, this is pretty blatant shenanigans on King's part, and it really hurts smaller developers who may not be able to afford the legal fees necessary to fight back.

Welcome to the future, everyone. Welcome to the King-dumb.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Ha, good look enforcing this shit King.

 

[duffmmann]

Oh boy more ridiculous issues thanks to copyright claims. This is worse than a patent troll or someone who sits on a domain though. Seriously copyrighting a word? Jesus.

 

[Arras]

I'm not sure where this lands between Scrolls, Edge (aka Tim Langdall iirc) and rounded rectangles, but it probably beats at least two of those.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Oh boy more ridiculous issues thanks to copyright claims. This is worse than a patent troll or someone who sits on a domain though. Seriously copyrighting a word? Jesus.

Protip, copyright =/= Trademark. A copyright implies it's your own original content, whereas a trademark just identifies that the product you're using is from a certain company.

 

[duffmmann]

Protip, copyright =/= Trademark. A copyright implies it's your own original content, whereas a trademark just identifies that the product you're using is from a certain company.

Ah much thanks, I always make that mistake when I talk about this stuff in a hurry.

 

[chavosaur]

What the actual fuck.

 

[Dimensional]

I look at this and I think of two things: 1) The patent offices seem to be so poor they'll sell the trademark to life itself to the highest bidder if they could, and 2) most game companies now can't use the word candy for anything, and as such will have to change the word to something more broad like Sweets or specific for the various objects in the game, like chocolate, sugar, lollipop, etc

Just goes to show how far governments and corporations will go for power. And so far nobody is smart enough to stop them, nor willing to, nor can. The world is doomed!!!!! XP

 

[Dork]

How in the fuck did this get approved?

 

[DaggerV]

King-dumb, I love it.




On side note, just another day in an attempt to grab more money.

 

[spinal_cord]

Yet another example of how screwed up the whole copyright/trademark mess is.

 

[Taleweaver]

On January 15, 2014 the filing was approved.

...and there's your problem. What kind of monkeys are running that US trademark office? The game is candy crush saga. Not candy. Or did they register the names "crush" and "saga" as well?

Fuck it. I'm just going to create a simple 'hello world' program and put it on the internet. I'll call it "the ultimate game challenge". Then I'll register "the", "ultimate", "game" and "challenge" for trademarks. And if any of those sleazy thieves DARE to copy ANY PART OF MY GAME, then I'll sue their asses*!!!!!

And speaking of monkeys...does this mean that nintendo is getting sued if they dare include Candy Kong in tropical freeze**?







*okay: I'll settle for a meager 10% of their profit. but they better pay me!
**fuck...just in case this happens, I better register claims of headlines like "King takes on Kong", "they're aiming to be King of Kong".

 

[BORTZ]

wut

Spoiler

I cant "wut" face hard enough

 

[bowser]

So you're saying Nintendo can't use Candy Kong in their games anymore? And Playboy girls can't wear chocolate panties?

EDIT: ninja'd!

 

[Veho]

Iggy Pop now owes them 370 thousand dollars

 

[FAST6191]

If we are doing music videos now


Back on topic it seems like the trademark division of the USPTO is trying to one up the stupidity of the patent division.

 

[XDel]

Copy Right laws need to be abolished! Humanity survived thousands of years without them and will be fine if we let go of them now.

 

[Sheimi]

This is why this makes America look like a total shithole.

 

[frogboy]

Oh well. It's not like Candy Crush made me entirely sick of candy or anything.

 

[Walker D]

This is not copyright protection ...this is fuc** expression banning ..wtf? ...denying the use of words? This trademarks shit is taming society and slowing down or evolution...