“The delectable ascent of Candy Crush Saga to the top of the app charts has just been sweetened by yet another conquest,” Geoff Weiss reports for Entrepreneur. “After the game’s developer, King, filed a trademark claim for the word ‘candy’ with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last February, it has walked away victorious.”
“The ruling gives King rights to the word in the domain of software products, educational services and — somewhat tellingly — clothing,” Weiss reports. “And Apple is enforcing the decision by blasting emails to developers whose apps include the term, asking them to either rename or remove their games from the App Store.”
“King responded somewhat judiciously, however, that it was not seeking widespread prosecution,” Weiss reports. “‘Our IP is constantly being infringed and we have to enforce our rights and to protect our players from confusion,’ the company said in a statement. ‘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.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple says ‘Candy Crush Saga’ was App Store standout in 2013 – December 18, 2013
Hooked on Candy Crush Saga? King.com gets gameplayers to pay – October 8, 2013
Maker of ‘Candy Crush Saga’ King.com said to file for U.S. IPO – October 2, 2013
I was really disappointed after I found out that Candy Crush is really a Tetris knockoff.
Don’t you mean “Bejeweled”? It’s surely a knock-off of Bejeweled. I tried Candy Crush, but personally I think Bejeweled is far superior, and whatsmore, Candy Crush keeps asking for money to update to extra features.
For me the challenge is actually going up the levels without paying King a single penny. I feel quite elated sometimes when a level is beaten, that has been bugging me for days. Personally, I think the whole thing is total luck and perseverance.
The Candyland people are screwed. No iOS game for them.
This is ridiculous. Boycott bullies. Kings don’t rule forever.
Pfffffft. I’m hereby filing a trademark claim for the word “the.” You have all been put on notice that, henceforth, any use of the word “the” will be prosecuted vigorously. We thank you in advance for your compliance.
You are too late unless of course you are a band member of the Thethe.
http://www.thethe.com/
Talk Talk!
Walla Walla
Ding Dong!
Far too late with Talk Talk, as it’s long been the name of a British band, and more recently the name of a mobile phone company in the UK.
Awww, that’s just a stammer. I’ve trademarked the™ definite article “the™”.
420 is mine
Wow, being able to trademark the word “candy” (even as it related to video games) is almost as ridiculous as granting trademarks for the words “windows” and “office”
And yet…
Funny the TM was granted. Candy Crisis was on Neo-Geo years ago and a Mac port of the SW still exists.
http://justaguythinkingblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/candy-crisis-game-for-intel-based-macs.html
The Intel Port of the Game is at that address.
Ugh.
But, what will all the Strippers call themselves ?.
Strippers deal with hardware, not software.
Ba-dum-tish!
I’m here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
=:~)
try the veal.
Actually, strippers turn software into hardware.
Strippers have hardware- it’s just internal.
I think he meant Candy Stripers. Volunteers at hospitals, usually young women interested in nursing profession.
Suuure he did.
I think my head just exploded. How many software titles have common words in them? “Scanner”, “Tuner”, “Battle”, “Note”, “Store”, “Map”, “Calendar”.
Is King wanting to trademark the word ‘candy’ any less ridiculous then you, Apple, trademarking the phrase ‘app store’?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/09/apple_drops_app_store_trademark_suit/
I don’t know. I suspect that the word ‘candy’ in reference to software is just a bit more common than ‘app store.’
If you had done a bit more research you’d know that prior to Apple creating the App Store, App was not in common usage with reference to software utilities, so they were perfectly within their rights.
Depends if they coined the term “app”. They certainly popularized it. Candy, on the other hand?
Why is Apple enforcing another companies trademark? If the developers want to trademark candy, let them sue any companies that “infringe” on that trademark.
because gets 30% of every Candy Crush app sold. der.
I hadn’t thought of that and don’t worry…. the short yellow bus will be there to pick you up shortly.
there ain’t no bus out there…you funnin’ ol’ Bot?
well, you “der” (d) me and I felt bad
a thousand pardons, sahib.
No, Apple is protecting itself from any legal claims by King that it is supporting trademark infringement by sending out the notices. It basically passed the buck to developers.
DejaVu
http://365tomorrows.com/01/21/speech-crime/
I downloaded Candy Crush on my original iPad which has the most updated version iOS available for the original iPad…
The game app CRASHES every single time in opening. I get as far as pressing the first game. Should be called ‘Candy Crash’!
Crash has already been copyrighted by Microsoft.
What a load of horseshit. Oh- and by the way, I’m trademarking that term too.
sorry, Obama Messiah has already copyrighted that one.
Nooooo. My kids will not be able to play Candy Land?
They can play it but from now on it will be called “Confection Land”.
“Chinese Checkers” will now be called “Asian Checkers”, and because of actions taken by Hershey’s you may no longer refer to kissing your significant other but must, in fact, “osculate” them.
A load of BS ! Can’t believe its allowed.
Do you say tissue or ask for a Kleenex” Do you copy something or do you Xerox it? Now Kleenex and Xerox would have a better argument regarding their Registered trademark ‘brand’ then Apple’s attempt at cornering the market of such a generic phrase.
“Besides, “The Registrar also noted that ‘appstore’ as one word had been a registered trademark of the US-based cloud services company Salesforce in June 2006 indicating an understanding and use of the term well before Apple’s application for trademark.””
http://www.zdnet.com/au/dueling-linguists-brought-in-to-argue-apples-app-store-trademark-7000023294/
Salesforce’s registered trademark, hmm…
“The R-in-a-circle means that the trademark is registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office. That involves filing an application with a fee, and establishing that the owner is entitled to exclusive use of the mark in connection with particular goods and services. One may not use the R-in-a-circle sign without a registration.
A “TM” designation just means that the user of the trademark asserts that the word, phrase, design, or whatever it is, is a trademark owned by the user. Anyone can assert that anything is their trademark, but that does not necessarily mean that the user has exclusive rights. Federal and state trademark law protects many unregistered trademarks from confusion. But, an unregistered trademark is not subject to the same presumptions and legal protections and a registered trademark.”
http://askville.amazon.com/difference-TM-trademarks/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=5008583
If ‘appstore’ had been a registered tm of Salesforce in 2006. Then wouldn’t Apple sort of be in violation since Apple applied for it in 2008?
IMO, a stupid, silly game for little girls.
People should not be able to do that with general names of a category of things. So if you can do that with Candy, what’s next? Vegetable?
Welcome to the world of the ASININE:
King, filed a trademark claim for the word ‘candy’ with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last February, it has walked away victorious.
#MyStupidGovernment at work again being stupid. Thanks USPTO. If only YOU had to pay all the lawsuit bills resulting from your stupidity.
Asinine.
Welcome to the Candy-A$$ Saga.
Anyone remember the patent troll that had trademarked the word “Edge” ? He got sued by EA and eventually lost his rights to the word, but it was a pain in the butt for developers.
This shouldn’t have been awarded because “candy” is such a generic term, just waiting to be abused by someone later on down the road. I think someone paid off someone for a decision in their favor.