Yesterday, Candy Crush Saga developer King filed a trademark for the word “Candy” with the idea of protecting its IP? And remember how it would judge who was imposing on its signature gameplay on a case by case basis? Recently it seems that King filed a trademark claim against The Banner Saga. What was their reasoning, considering it doesn’t feature puzzle gameplay or candy? The use of the word “Saga”.
Speaking to Games Industry International, a King rep stated that, “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.”
Horrible reasoning or a logical conclusion? Let us know what you think.
