Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy” • Hacker News Board

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#41

Post by easy_rider » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:01 PM UTC

psykotic wrote: post #39

Funny. Brian Hook developed a game 12 years ago called Candy Cruncher with nearly identical naming, visuals and gameplay: http://www.pyrogon.com/games/candycruncher/ Edit: He just said he successfully filed for the Candy Cruncher trademark in 2002. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78164603&docId...

Doesn't matter who's first. But who's got the first patent.

He could get sued.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#42

Post by interstitial » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:01 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #26

jessaustin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaarrgh! Is this satire or cluelessness? I can't tell anymore...

I think it's an automated submission. Like the "Your blog about $BLOG-TITLE is fantastic Ill recomend it to al my frends".

He forgot his template tags: Congrats to the YC! ${YEAR} alumni on {[new round of funding|buy out|accepting bitcoin]}. No one deserves this success more. Sorry your daughter died in ${death} ? "Car accident"

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#43

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:07 PM UTC

easy_rider wrote: post #41

psykotic wrote: post #39

Funny. Brian Hook developed a game 12 years ago called Candy Cruncher with nearly identical naming, visuals and gameplay: http://www.pyrogon.com/games/candycruncher/ Edit: He just said he successfully filed for the Candy Cruncher trademark in 2002. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78164603&docId...

Doesn't matter who's first. But who's got the first patent. He could get sued.

[deleted]

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#44

Post by basseq » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:08 PM UTC

easy_rider wrote: post #41

psykotic wrote: post #39

Funny. Brian Hook developed a game 12 years ago called Candy Cruncher with nearly identical naming, visuals and gameplay: http://www.pyrogon.com/games/candycruncher/ Edit: He just said he successfully filed for the Candy Cruncher trademark in 2002. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78164603&docId...

Doesn't matter who's first. But who's got the first patent. He could get sued.

Patents and trademarks are different things, but I think in either case the idea of "prior art" would apply. In the U.S., you're granted a trademark automatically upon use. Brian should be able to say, "I've been using this since 2009" and be afforded at least a degree of protection. Of course, it's a lot harder to defend in court without a formal trademark, so he might not choose to litigate.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#45

Post by will_brown » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:11 PM UTC

Lawyer here. I once received a C&D letter for my business, vblood.com, a vampire themed energy drink from a competitor claiming they owned the TM rights to "blood" for beverages. That was a little different they filed the TM in the wrong category and I claimed defense of "descriptive use" how else would a blood themed beverage be described?

However, the Candy Crush Saga creators are even further behind the 8-ball on the TM "Candy" vis-a-vis video games. Why? Hasbro (one of the largest toy makers in the world) filed a TM for "Candy Land" - for interactive video games, in addition to many other TM categories - well before Candy Crush even existed. See: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4809:el5e10...

It would be very difficult to maintain their legal argument (i.e. "Candy Slots" is likely to cause confusion with their TM "Candy") and simultaneously argue that "Candy" does not create likelihood of confusion with "Candy Land".

Advice: See a Lawyer and protect your rights.

Edit: USPTO does not permit a direct link to TMs, and the above link probably errors. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lzhe7ah9t8fae3/Candyland.pdf

Edit 2: The 1st Dropbox link is a link to a "cancelled" TM, this is the current "Candy Land" TM registration for video games. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ev2wpx9o6bu1grc/candy%20land.pdf

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#46

Post by bertil » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:11 PM UTC

easy_rider wrote: post #41

psykotic wrote: post #39

Funny. Brian Hook developed a game 12 years ago called Candy Cruncher with nearly identical naming, visuals and gameplay: http://www.pyrogon.com/games/candycruncher/ Edit: He just said he successfully filed for the Candy Cruncher trademark in 2002. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78164603&docId...

Doesn't matter who's first. But who's got the first patent. He could get sued.

Actually, for a patent (and, as someone pointed out, it's a trade mark the orignal article is about) if there is documented proof of a previous invention (I doubt that would be a problem with IT) that is the easiest was to invalidate a patent.

For trade marks, fame does matter, but then again: documented previous existence of a smaller brand would be enough to stay. Having one large corporation buy a small existing brand, and marketing it beyond its original scope could put them in trouble, though.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#47

Post by bertil » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:13 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #45

Lawyer here. I once received a C&D letter for my business, vblood.com, a vampire themed energy drink from a competitor claiming they owned the TM rights to "blood" for beverages. That was a little different they filed the TM in the wrong category and I claimed defense of "descriptive use" how else would a blood themed beverage be described? However, the Candy Crush Saga creators are even further behind the 8-ball on…

Thank you for that — it's a shame someone belonging to the same professional group as you advised King to do something stupid and provocative. I really wish sanctions from Bar associations were stronger when it comes to empowering large clients to bully others in spite of common sense.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#48

Post by bertil » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:16 PM UTC

codyb wrote: post #23

skymt wrote: post #21

I'm a little sympathetic to King here because of the degree to which other developers have ripped off Candy Crush. A couple minutes searching the app store for "candy" turned up five examples ranging from "strongly based on" to "deliberately sowing confusion." One describes itself as a "popular candy 'match 3' game," another even uses the distinctive Candy Crush UI font. But of course they throw away any sympathy by…

Isn't Candy Crush just a rip off of Bejeweled though?

Bejeweled itself wasn't very original. Game industry has a whole category for those: “Match 3”. CC and Bjw were close within that group, but not enough not to argue that the minor differences where not par for the widespread :cough: ‘hommage’ standard of the industry.

Trade mark has the benefit of addressing names, i.e. word search in the App store.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#49

Post by vacri » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:18 PM UTC

mikeryan wrote: post #4

Think of Apple, for example. Nobody is going to expect the electronics giant to lay claim over the fruit, but if someone were to try to market an electronic device under that name, you’d better believe their lawyers would swoop in. Ironically the reverse happened. Apple always had an uneasy trademark situation with Apple Corps (A holding company owned by the Beatles which owns Apple Records). Apple kept "entering the…

Apple tried to prevent a supermarket chain here in Australia from using a logo which stylised their "W" as an apple, one that looked nothing like Apple's apple.

Re: Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

#50

Post by vacri » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 9:22 PM UTC

codyb wrote: post #23

skymt wrote: post #21

I'm a little sympathetic to King here because of the degree to which other developers have ripped off Candy Crush. A couple minutes searching the app store for "candy" turned up five examples ranging from "strongly based on" to "deliberately sowing confusion." One describes itself as a "popular candy 'match 3' game," another even uses the distinctive Candy Crush UI font. But of course they throw away any sympathy by…

Isn't Candy Crush just a rip off of Bejeweled though?

After playing a number of King games recently, they are all 'reimaginings' of old classics. Candy Crush is a little more original in terms of additional difficulties, but some of them are basically lifted wholesale. The originality from King is the polish and the art, not the gameplay.