The Banner Saga has just been released, but it seems Stoic is interested in releasing a sequel. Yesterday we reported that King.com has opposed Stoic’s attempt to trademark The Banner Saga. Today sees a comment from King.com on the matter and a reply from Stoic.

In a statement to GamesBeat, King suggests that it is only trying to protect its trademark by opposing The Banner Saga. It doesn’t want Stoic not to use the name. It just wants to prevent them from owning it.

If successful, this would prevent Stoic from enforcing its own right to the name in the event of another party co-opting it. Stoic has responded to the matter indicating that it plans to make another game in the series. “We won’t make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don’t appreciate anyone telling us we can’t,” Stoic co-founder Alex Thomas says. “King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains.”

King’s own trademark filing for the word “saga” has been suspended. This does not prevent the company from opposing others, though. For more on King’s trademark of the word “candy,” how suggestive marks such as this work, and the company’s attempts to enforce the matter, read our previous coverage.

[Source: GamesBeat]

Our Take
Part of the problem is a heavily bankrolled company like King.com interfering with legitimate uses of words shared between its titles and those of other developers. Another is the patent and trademark system here in the United States that leaves matters such as this up to checkbooks rather than justice and common sense.

This incident is a cry for reformation of a system that enables trademark and patent trolls. Intellectual property and branding must be protected, but this is simply too far.