Candy®

[Bob Juch]

The developers of the popular mobile game, "Candy Crush Saga" now have complete ownership of the word "Candy," after the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved King.com's request for brand copyright after almost a year.

King.com Limited, publishers of the well-known mobile game "Candy Crush Saga," have got the legal right to use and publish the word "candy" as the company's trademark and sue those who infringe the newly acquired patent. After waiting for almost a year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office finally approved the trademark claim for "candy," Wednesday, January 15. The trademark includes games and software, educational services, and clothing too, according to Legal Force Trademarkia.

The game developers are already in action asking other publishers to either remove their app, which uses the word "candy", or prove that their game doesn't infringe the trademark. The patent grant has upset many developers as protecting a generic word like "candy" seems "so ridiculous," Benny Hsu, the maker of All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land, told Gamezebo.

After contacting King's IP paralegal Sohie Hallstrom, Hsu got a precise response. "Your use of CANDY SLOTS in your app icon uses our CANDY trade mark exactly, for identical goods, which amounts to trade mark infringement and is likely to lead to consumer confusion and damage to our brand," Hallstrom replied. "The addition of only the descriptive term "SLOTS" does nothing to lessen the likelihood of confusion."

http://www.hngn.com/articles/22507/2014 ... eloper.htm

[littlebeast13]

Well, there goes my childhood...

lb13

[Vandal]

Is it found it or Found It®?

[Bob78164]

The developers of the popular mobile game, "Candy Crush Saga" now have complete ownership of the word "Candy," after the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved King.com's request for brand copyright after almost a year.

King.com Limited, publishers of the well-known mobile game "Candy Crush Saga," have got the legal right to use and publish the word "candy" as the company's trademark and sue those who infringe the newly acquired patent. After waiting for almost a year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office finally approved the trademark claim for "candy," Wednesday, January 15. The trademark includes games and software, educational services, and clothing too, according to Legal Force Trademarkia.

The game developers are already in action asking other publishers to either remove their app, which uses the word "candy", or prove that their game doesn't infringe the trademark. The patent grant has upset many developers as protecting a generic word like "candy" seems "so ridiculous," Benny Hsu, the maker of All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land, told Gamezebo.

After contacting King's IP paralegal Sohie Hallstrom, Hsu got a precise response. "Your use of CANDY SLOTS in your app icon uses our CANDY trade mark exactly, for identical goods, which amounts to trade mark infringement and is likely to lead to consumer confusion and damage to our brand," Hallstrom replied. "The addition of only the descriptive term "SLOTS" does nothing to lessen the likelihood of confusion."

http://www.hngn.com/articles/22507/2014 ... eloper.htm

The article gets a lot of things wrong. First, there's no such thing (in the U.S.) as "brand copyright." They appear to be referring to a registered trademark. Second, you don't need a trademark registration to sue for trademark infringement. It does make the plaintiff's life somewhat easier, though. Third, it's not a "patent," it's a trademark. Fourth, getting a trademark doesn't give you complete ownership of the word. It prevents others from using it in a confusingly similar source-identifying way. --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

Fourth, getting a trademark doesn't give you complete ownership of the word. It prevents others from using it in a confusingly similar source-identifying way. --Bob

That's the key, whether there's a possibility of confusing someone else's identifying mark with the trademarked one. McDonalds tries to do the same thing, whenever they hear about a restaurant or a food item that has "Mc" in it.

They probably have a good chance of stopping similar apps and video games, but going beyond that to clothing could be iffy.

[silverscreenselect]

From reading a couple of articles about this, the Candy Crush people have a point (and Apple is helping them enforce their trademark on the App Store). There are dozens of similar sounding games in the App Store with the name "Candy" in them and it's pretty obvious that they have to be taking away some of the business that would otherwise go to Candy Crush.

The guy who runs the slot machine game has no case. He's obviously trying to use the word "candy" and several other key words in an awkwardly titled game "All Candy Casino Slots – Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land" As for the other claimed uses of the trademark, it's tough to see how any type of clothing that has the word "Candy" in it would be assumed to infringe the trademark of a video game company, especially because the word "candy" itself is so generic.

[BackInTex]

Worthless endevors taking up valuable court time.

[silverscreenselect]

Worthless endevors taking up valuable court time.

Candy Crush Saga receives over $950,000 in revenue a day.

It's certainly not worthless to the owners.

[Bob78164]

Worthless endevors taking up valuable court time.

It doesn't appear that anyone has actually filed a lawsuit yet. --Bob