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Candy Crush Saga creators have trademarked the word “candy”

gamezebo.com

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

#61

Post by jrs99 »

vacri wrote: post #50
codyb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

that's why I don't think what they do really matters. This is the next Zynga. You could tell that Zynga wasn't legitimate from a thousand miles away.

People that clone games lose. Always. They don't know what to do when there's nothing more to clone.

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

#62

Post by AngusMcQuarrie »

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…

Do you know if counter-suing for some form of extortion over frivolous IP lawsuits (or threats thereof) has ever been attempted or tested?

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

#63

Post by 10feet »

rhizome wrote: post #53
jmduke wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That third link is incredible; they've made a cottage industry out of match-3 clones. Not only Action Candy Swap , but Action Candy Shift , Action Jewel Matching , and Amazing Fruit Shift -- all of which seem to be clones of the same game with different sprites and verbiage.

I imagine the business model is the repackage the same thing under as many search term combinations as they can think that people would try to find a game like this. In food terms, like a restaurant advertising the same thing as, "BBQ," "Smoked Meat," "Southern Grill Food," "St. Louis Pork," "Tailgate Plate," etc. It's just pushing SEO into the actual name of the game.

This is partly Apple faults. They only allow you 100 letters for keywords, they no longer index the description, and they provide no feedback on what users used to find your app. So they give you no information that you could use to limit your searches.

There are a number of workaround for this, and one is to upload the same game with slightly different title until you hit on the magic combination that gets you sales. It sucks to have worked hard on a game, and it fails because of the wrong combination of title and keywords.

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

#65

Post by bane »

vacri wrote: post #49
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.

also reminds me of http://gawker.com/5853402/apple-threatens-to-sue-tiny-german...

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

#66

Post by chrismcb »

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…

As I understand it, people trading with that name BEFORE the trademark was filed, can continue to use the name as well.

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

#67

Post by DannyBee »

IP lawyer here:

No, they haven't trademarked it.

They've applied for one.

It's been approved for publication in the official gazette.

It is now on step 11 of http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/

This means anyone who wants to object now has 30 days to object to the mark. You can imagine they will, given how broadly they claim this mark (plus the examiner should have objected)

So basically, rather than complain and write articles, now is exactly the right time to file an objection to the mark.

The USPTO site makes this clear: "Approved by the examining attorney for publication but has not yet published for opposition. Although rare, withdrawal of approval prior to publication may occur after final review. The opposition period begins on the date of publication."

If you want the exact status: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85842584&caseType=SERIAL_N...

Also note: The basis is that it is based on a foreign filing (which means they also filed somewhere else other than the US)

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

#68

Post by tharri »

Acording to the USPS, the current status is:

"Approved by the examining attorney for publication but has not yet published for opposition. Although rare, withdrawal of approval prior to publication may occur after final review. The opposition period begins on the date of publication."

A trademark is not registered until at least 30 days after it is first published for opposition. DannyBee is right on. These developers should be thanking the idiot lawyer for sending a C&D, as now they can file opposition claims with the US Trademark office and prevent it from being registered.

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