King went from being a company that made Facebook games to being a company that tried to copyright common terms to the company that turned out to be surprisingly prone to theft and legal bullying. Apparently, though, that’s dinged their reputation enough that they’ve decided to slam on the brakes.
Specifically, they’ve stopped trying to copyright the word “candy” in order to “protect” Candy Crush Saga, according to Kotaku. Well, at least in the US, anyway. Here’s their statement on the matter:
King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher.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.
The problem, of course, is that King might not be dropping their pursuit of the word “Saga”, which has already screwed over indie studio Stoic and their game The Banner Saga, and they might be pursuing the mark in other countries, which is ridiculous in of itself. And that’s not even getting into the absurdity of trying to “protect” a match-three game like dozens of others before it. But at least in the US, people can make games involving candy without worrying about being sued.
via Kotaku