Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
King.com Attempts To Enforce New Trademark For The Word ‘Candy’
Last February, Candy Crush Saga developer King.com filed paperwork with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the word “candy.” On January 15, 2014, the trademark filing was approved, and King.com began enforcing its ownership.
The trademark office looks at the connection between a word and the product, and in the case of “candy” has determined that King’s association with the term is strong enough to warrant defense. However, this kind of trademark is considered “suggestive” rather than “descriptive.”
Grocery store chains can be used to demonstrate the differences. Kings (a suggestive trademark) is an upscale local chain of markets in New Jersey. The name connotes high quality, but doesn’t explain what the brand is. Stop and Shop (a descriptive trademark), on the other hand, is clearly a retail establishment.
Suggestive marks are harder to defend, because it’s conceivable that others could have come to the name on their own. Still, King is reaching out to app developers in an attempt to clear competing uses of the word “candy” out of the app stores.
According to Gamezebo, one of those developers is Benny Hsu, the developer of All Candy Casino Slots. Hsu tells the publication that King.com has accused him of trademark infringement. King.com could also apply legal pressure to those companies with “candy” games that released before Candy Crush Saga (April 12, 2012).
[Source: Gamezebo]
Our Take
In my professional past, I was deeply involved with the naming of a new product. Our attorney told us bluntly that we could likely obtain a suggestive trademark for our first choice name, but we would have a costly fight ahead (with no guarantee of victory) should we ever need to defend it.
I suspect that King.com is banking on the “costly fight” scenario as deterrent, even to those unreasonably swept up in this trademark push. Even if a developer would win in court, it might not have the financial wherewithal to defend itself against King.com. Candy Crush Saga was the second highest grossing app on iOS devices in 2013. Money like that is hard to defend against.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
