We have written before how King.com the makers of the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga were seeking to trademark Candy for video games and clothing. Last month King.com decided to pull their US application and are no longer seeking to trademark the word ‘Candy’ with the USPTO.
“King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher.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.”
They are holding on to their EU trademark of the word Candy which was acquired through an acquisition.
Paul Sawers from The Next Web covered the story, from the article:
King acquired the trademark in the EU for ‘Candy’ from a company that had entered bankruptcy, before word spread in January this year that it had been approved with specific reference to video games and clothing. But the UK registered-arm of ZeptoLab, the folks behind other ridiculously popular games including Cut the Rope, tell us it has “…begun the process of cancelling King.com’s registration of ‘Candy’ in the European Union by submitting an official claim in London.”
This process started on March 20, and ZeptoLab says it’s aiming to “allow game developers and others to freely use the term ‘candy’ to refer to any games that may include candy.”
From ZeptoLab’s perspective, its objections stem from the fact that it uses the word ‘candy’ in its own games – in Cut the Rope, players feed pieces of candy to Om Nom, a little green creature.
So it looks like on the heels of an IPO that King is going to have an IP battle on their hands and it remains to be seen if investors will find this a big deal, little deal or no deal.
This is deliciously hilarious.