Candy Jam game jam!

[EFizzle]

http://thecandyjam.com/

As some of you probably figured out, but for those that haven't heard the news:

King, the developers of Candy Crush: Saga was just awarded the trademark for the common word "Candy". Yes, Candy! It's ridiculous that they can come in, and just take the word candy! Now we can't use that word to title our greatest creations! We game developers should be enraged! Why? Oh I don't' know, just read this article if you're interested in the actual facts of this whole story. But I'm just here to promote the new game jam, Candy Jam. Please participate! It's a fun game jam that ends on February 3rd! That's plenty of time! No excuses!

This gist of this game jam to is to just make a candy-themed game with Candy in the title! That's it! This looks like a ridiculously fun game jam, so I'll be participating! How about you guys? What do you think?

[Edit]

If you want to keep up with goings of the participants #CandyJam on twitter is the go-to hashtag for this event!

 

[EtphTheElephant]

So if yell out 'CANDY!' I'm gonna get sued? T.T

Oh, and this is freakin' ridiculous.

 

[cabfe]

The WTF moment of the day. Unbelievable...

How can a system be so wrong and never revised?

 

[EFizzle]

EtphTheElephant: It's not exactly how trademarks work...

and cabfe that's why we're doing this Game Jam! As a form of protest to this ridiculousness of the whole thing! So join in the game jam!

 

[Milkdud]

According to what George Broussard has heard, King also sent Stoic Studios a cease & desist for The Banner Saga. So make sure nothing you make has Candy or Saga in the title!

 

[wallacethepig]

Simple solution: Games will use "Candie" instead of "Candy". Your move, King.

I do see where you're coming from, and this is a big deal. The government should make a blacklist of words that can't be used as trademarks: The, at, with, and so on; as well as candy and other commonly used nouns.

-Wallace

 

[Makio-Kuta]

That is completely ridiculous, wow. I wish I had time to join in the game jam, but I'm totally cheering everyone who does on. And looking for a handful of sweet little indies that come out of the jam O:

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Man, its funny because Hasbro deliberately avoids undefendable trademarks all the time with toys (Which is how we end up with some name changes for transformers, or the addition of another word. Like Hot Rod became Rodimus, or Jazz became Autobot Jazz on the packaging). This is hilariously undefendable.

I think in the long run they are just hurting themselves because they can't defend such a common word. Now, they should have trademarked "Candy Crush", as one term.

 

[EFizzle]

I agree with Touchfuzzy here. The typical rule of thumb for registering a trademark is to register a short phrase or an image, not just a word, or word combo, since those rarely hold up in court. Coca Cola only has a trademark on the fancy Coca Cola font that you see everywhere. What King has done is the exact opposite, by trademarking the individual words they've shot themselves in the foot. In reality, they should've stuck with just trademarking Candy Crush...

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Related

 

[monkeynohito]

They don't really hold the trademark on 'Candy' yet, they're still in application, but as long as they have the money to out-litigate opposition, they can do whatever they want. They can't even get in trouble for making all these empty threats because their BS application is grounds enough for 'good faith'.

 

[Davant]

So if yell out 'CANDY!' I'm gonna get sued? T.T

Oh, and this is freakin' ridiculous.

Well... moreso that you can't name a game Candy. Not without paying royalties, I think.

 

[EtphTheElephant]

Well... moreso that you can't name a game Candy. Not without paying royalties, I think.

I know, my post was meant as a joke.

 

[Davant]

I know, my post was meant as a joke.

Oh. Er. Sorry. >_<;

 

[EtphTheElephant]

No biggie.

 

[cybrim]

What a bunch of garbage! I can't believe anyone in their right mind would allow someone to copyright/trademark/licence a single word that has been around for ages beyond their existence!

If this gets approved wouldn't that truly be the end of free speech? I'm going to the court-house monday and copyrighting the following words, "Genre", "Fantasy", "Sci-fi", "God", "Free", "Speech", "Read", "Forum", "Creative", "Thought", "Religion", "Liberty", "Corporation", "Legal", "Rights", "You Get The Idea".

^This is what we are going to have to deal with soon if they allow this one word to be violated.

 

[AwesomeCool]

I am going to copyright the word "soon" and never let blizzard use it again!

 

[Titanhex]

IP laws in the U.S. are just plain ridiculous, stifling, and degrading to the entertainment and media industry. Too many fat-cat businessmen trying to roll over people with ridiculous grounds to stand on. The collapse of the corporate, AAA, big-name publishing video game industry can't come soon enough.

I support this Candy-Jam. Unfortunately I'm too busy to lend anything, having just completed my own game jam.