Trademark law: still completely ridiculous.
By Alice Lynton on April 20, 2014 at 11:57 am
The Banner Saga developer Stoic Games and Candy Swype creator Albert Ransom have both come to agreements with King, the casual publisher behind Candy Crush Saga.
"Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future," Stoic said in a public statement.
"I am happy to announce that I have amicably resolved my dispute with King over my CandySwipe trademark and that I am withdrawing my opposition to their mark and they are withdrawing their counterclaim against mine. I have learned that they picked the Candy Crush name before I released my game and that they were never trying to take my game away. Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players," Ransom wrote.
King holds a trademark on the word "saga" and had made a bid for "candy", although it gave up the latter in North America. Both the Candy Swype and The Banner Saga developers went public after receiving trademark dispute claims, resulting in a wave of public opinion backlash for King.
North American trademark law is pretty cumbersome, and companies don't necessarily have ill intent even when they have to do ridiculous things like this; poor old Bethesda took a beating when it had to dispute Mojang over Scrolls.
Source: Polygon
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