In a move that shocks nobody at this point, King, the owners of Candy Crush Saga (and apparently all words within that title itself) have crushed the dreams of another indie developer. In an open letter to King, Albert Ransom surrendered to the behemoth, after a year-long legal battle.
Back in 2010, Ransom released CandySwipe, a small, lighthearted game created in the memory of his mother, who had recently passed away. The app had its audience, and was able to help the indie developer support his family. Fast forward two years, and Candy Crush Saga is released on mobile, bearing a shocking resemblance to Ransom’s game. The problem was that the success of Candy Crush led people to think that CandySwipe was the knockoff, not the other way around, leading to people sinking the game with poor reviews.
Naturally, when Candy Crush applied for its trademark in 2012, Ransom opposed it, due to ‘likelihood of confusion’. King’s response? Simple: buy out the rights to another candy themed game which predated Candy Swipe (in this case a game named Candy Crusher), and use those rights to argue that CandySwipe’s trademark be removed because the “Candy” in Crusher came first.
“You have taken away the possibility of CandySwipe blossoming into what it has the potential of becoming. I have been quiet, not to exploit the situation, hoping that both sides could agree on a peaceful resolution. However, your move to buy a trademark for the sole purpose of getting away with infringing on the CandySwipe trademark and goodwill just sickens me.”
This news follows King’s previous attempts at throwing around their trademark for Candy Crush Saga, going after not only the completely unrelated indie game The Banner Saga, but countless games that dare to use the word “Candy” in their title.
Congratulations King. You win again, and everyone still hates you. Good job.
