Update:
King has issued a statement explaining its actions, claiming that although it has initiated legal actions (you can see the official document here – warning, it’s a PDF) it’s merely to note its opposition to the name The Banner Saga rather than actively stopping the game from being released:
King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content. However, like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future.
In this case, that means preserving our ability to enforce our rights in cases where other developers may try to use the Saga mark in a way which infringes our IP rights and causes player confusion. If we had not opposed Banner Saga’s trade mark application, it would be much easier for real copy cats to argue that their use of ‘Saga’ was legitimate.
This is an important issue for King because we already have a series of games where ‘Saga’ is key to the brand which our players associate with a King game; Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and so on. All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones.
Original story:
Indie developers have fought back against developer King’s increasingly bizarre legal actions with a game jam called ‘Candy Jam’.
To the uninitiated it may look like just another Bejeweled clone but Candy Crush Saga is currently one of the most popular video games in the world. This means British developer King suddenly has a lot of power and influence, which naturally it’s already started to abuse.
It’s the slightly unhinged nature of the abuse which is unexpected though, with the company currently trying to trademark the word ‘candy’ so that nobody else can use it.
They insist that it’s only to protect thesmelves from other games and apps trying to copying them, but that’s not how trademarks work and if they do get it they’d be free to sue anyone for just about anything. As often happened with the trademark troll that owned the rights to the word ‘Edge’.
But King’s plans don’t stop there, as they’re also suing Kickstarter game The Banner Saga because it has the word ‘saga’ in its name.
Ignorning the fact that most people ommit the word Saga when saying Candy Crush’s name The Banner Saga is an adult-themed tactical role-playing game with a notably morose atmosphere. Although it does contain lots of angry vikings at no point in the game are you invited to match together three-similarly coloured sweets.
Even so King’s legal filing insists that: ‘The use and registration by Applicant of the mark The Banner Saga for Applicant’s goods is likely to cause confusion or to cause mistake or deception in the trade, and among purchasers and potential purchasers, with Opposer’s Saga Marks, again resulting in damage to Opposer.’
We’re trying to keep upbeat but frankly the whole business is deeply depressing in its unbridled corporate greed, especially given the current revelations about games publishers bribing YouTubers.
The only positive element to the story is that indie developers have organised an event called Candy Jam to protest King’s actions and to make as many games with the word candy in them as possible.
Game jams are indie get-togethers where each developer tries to make a whole game in a single weekend, often with a particular theme. You can find more details about Candy Jam here.
