King recently withdrew its trademark of the word “Candy”, which they filed for last year and got approval for earlier this year.

According to an article from Kotaku, the company behind the bestseller Candy Crush Saga filed a withdrawal of the trademark of the term “Candy”, which caused an uproar after it restricted anyone using the word in video games and apparel.

After the trademark was made known, the developer even went after The Banner Saga, a game that submitted its trademark before King. King then tried to get the trademark declined because of the name “Saga”. Some game developers in protest to this practice started to quickly make games with the words “Candy” and “Saga” in the name.

Even though King refused to offer any comment on why the trademark was revoked, a spokesperson told multiple outlets that the filing for the trademark was before they acquired Candy Crusher and, although the US trademark was abandoned, the one in Europe is still intact and they will continue to protect their intellectual property.

My Opinion

This was inevitable. As Erik Kain from Forbes put it, “No corporation should have legal rights to any word I can use in Scrabble”. This practice would not have been tolerated by gamers and developers at all. However, saying that, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not the end of King’s reign. The battle is not yet over, as the trademark still holds in Europe. In the US, however, we are free to have sagas and candy applications, which is nice for anyone with the application “Saga of Candy’s The Candy Saga of Candy Saga”.

Sources: Kotaku Article, Forbes Article

_______________________________________________________________________________Shawn Richards studies games to understand how they work. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.