Casual gaming giant King has “amicably” resolved its disputes with both The Banner Saga and CandySwipe, perhaps concluding that being seen as the games industry’s top villain isn’t the best business practice.
Both affected parties are now saying they’ve reached an agreement with King, which holds the position that action was needed in order to not set a precedent of inaction. Both CandySwipe and Stoic‘s statements are as follows:
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. 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. Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players.
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.
After trademarking the word “candy”, with an outstanding application for the word “saga”, King had seen fit to go on the attack — and one of the first in the firing line was Stoic’s The Banner Saga, a tale of Vikings with arguably more right to use the word than King. Even more ridiculous was King’s pursuit of CandySwipe, a game that had come out two years prior to Candy Crush Saga.
After an industry backlash, King had renounced its hold on the word “candy” in the US, if not the EU. The issue has stayed in the news with the help of developers around the world protesting broken copyright systems by including the words “candy” and “saga” in their game prototype names as much as possible.
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Comments
5 responses to “King Backs Down Over Trademark Disputes”
Looks like the idiots knew when to tap out.
We don’t know what the agreement was though. Perhaps the little man with a big sack of cash made the whole thing go away.
Well, the right time to tap out would’ve been when everyone was still forming the idea that they are Internet Villains. Now that idea’s good and cemented in.
Good call.
When you are advertising your android/ios game on television with it’s own ad in the break, you know you’re scum.