As of January 15, 2014, King.com, developer of the popular Candy Crush Saga game app, has trademarked the word "Candy".
With the help of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, the company now owns the word "candy", according to a report by Mercury News. Through its legal ownership, other game developers can no longer use the word in their game titles. Failure to comply will result in copyright infringement.
Intellectual property experts describe the move by King.com as "blatantly anticompetitive". But no matter how unfair and ridiculous it may be, King.com is being backed up by Apple in enforcing their trademark rights, Forbes reports.
This is exactly what game developer Benny Hsu with his game "All Candy Casino Slots -Jewel Connect" Big Blast Mania Land. Hsu was asked to remove his game from the App Store primarily due to its title containing the word "candy".
He was then sent a letter from King.com's paralegal stating, "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. The addition of only the descriptive term 'SLOTS' does nothing to lessen the likelihood of confusion."
"Lots of devs are frustrated because it seems so ridiculous." Hsu said. He adds, "because it's dumb that King.com LTD can trademark a common word."
Hsu's represent the other developers who received the same letter from King.com. In an article on Gamezebo, Martin Schwimmer, a partner at the IP legal firm Leeson Ellis, advised developers to call a lawyer if they receive such a letter.
"A trademark lawyer can be very useful in obtaining a coexistence agreement," Schwimmer said, "Often a trademark owner will accept a settlement in which the possibility of confusion is mitigated, perhaps the developer will not expand into areas more directly competitive with the trademark owner."
Schwimmer's advice could be an ideal solution. But for Hsu and other indie developers on the App Store, hiring a lawyer and getting into a legal battle is out of the question due to their limited resources. Hsu was left with no other choice but to change the title of his game to "All Sweets Casino Slots".