Kotaku reports that King, the company behind Candy Crush Saga seems to have finally backed down from its attempted trademark of the world “Candy”. A document on The United States Trademark Office website reveals that King issued an “Express Abandonment” on the trademark application. King registered to trademark the word “Candy” from being used to allegedly “protect” it's intellectual property from being damaged by any other applications also using the word.
When the trademark application first arrived, the gaming community got riled up big time, citing King's decision as greedy and unethical. The most unique retaliation from the gaming community came in the form of Candy Jam, a game jam centered around making games about candy, use “Candy” in their titles, or take prods at King.
King issued the following comment with Kotaku regarding the trademark abandonment:
King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher. Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP.
Candy Crush Saga Goes After The Banner Saga
It's hard to tell if King realized that what they were doing was crummy, but at least the trademark is seemingly dead in the United States. King's other trademark on the word “Saga” has been suspend by the Trademark office since December 4, 2013.
