Some weird things start to happen when people get successful. The self worth and ego get hyper-inflated, leading to some very odd and overreaching behavior, and Candy Crush Saga developer King may be guilty of just that. As the top developer for Facebook, as well as one of the companies that helped generate $3.2 billion in sales for the free-to-play genre last year, King is no doubt well known, and as a result, copied. But the company is taking strange steps to ensure no one confuses its hit game with any paltry imitations, by trademarking "candy."
It's the sort of thing you'd expect from some wig wearing weirdo, sure, but a humble video game developer?
Weird or not, the developer was successful in its move, and is now going after any and all other games in Apple's iOS store that feature the delightfully decadent foodstuff in its namesake. One such example is All Candy Casino Slots. Ben Hsu, the game's developer, spoke to Gamezebo about a letter he received from King, which read:
"Your use of CANDY SLOTS in your app icon uses our CANDY trademark exactly, for identical goods, which amounts to trademark infringement and is likely to lead to consumer confusion and damage to our brand." The letter also assumes a good deal of Candy Crush players must be borderline retarded, as the letter also adds, "The addition of only the descriptive term 'SLOTS' does nothing to lessen the likelihood of confusion."
Thanks for looking out King, because never before was I able to discern the difference between a game that's constantly popping up on my Facebook feed, and a slot game I've never heard of until now.
A spokesman from King told GI.biz explained in further detail why they went after Hsu's game in particular.
"The particular App in this instance was called 'Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land', but its icon in the App store just says 'Candy Slots', focussing heavily on our trademark. As well as infringing our and other developer's IP, use of keywords like this as an App name is also a clear breach of Apple's terms of use. We believe this App name was a a calculated attempt to use other companies' IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings."
Fair enough. Anyone who's done a basic search in either Apple's iOS Store or Android's Google Play are a virtual wild west, lacking anything close to regulation. There are indeed hordes of imitations of games of all genres that are little more than rip-offs, and it is well within a company's rights to try and protect its product.
The spokesman continued, "We don't enforce against all uses of CANDY - some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so."
Still, trademarking "candy" is a hell of a way to go about it. I wonder if I could trademark "birds" and make a business proposal to Rovio...
