Please sign this petition...

[Simon D. Aelsi]

I hope I'm putting this in the right forum...

KING, the company what "made" Candy Crush Saga is threatening smalltime dev Disastercake, creator of Soul Saga (pending)The guy's still working on it. It's scheduled to be released to PC soon, then, possible to PS3(4?) and WiiU.

After five years he may have to change the name of his game because the brainiacs who "made"candycrush stupid want to copyright the words "CANDY" and "SAGA".... INDIVIDUALLY!

King.com Limited, the mobile casual game giant, has recently filed to trademark the word 'candy' as it applies to video games and has been approved for publication by the US trademark office with room for a 30-day challenge. Developers and smaller studios are starting to get cease and desist letters telling them to take their games down from app stores for having the generic word 'candy' in their game titles.

This will cause numerous developers, many independent who cannot afford a legal battle, to needlessly start their projects over because they used an extremely common word in their game titles.

King is also planning to pursue the word 'saga' for their games as well, which at least already infringes on Square Enix USA. King has made the lion's share of its revenue out of aping the Bejeweled game mechanic and implementing ethically questionable free-to-play pricing tactics and is now using that revenue to squash innovation and competition in the games market. Please do not grant them this trademark.

 The link leads to the petition. Please sign!

We're all small developers, aren't we? I know them feels.

EDIT: If you don't agree with it or if you don't have a heart don't want to sign... that's fine too.  Just please, respect the cause. And BE respectful.

Thanks.

EDIT2: The CEO of Disastercake just sent me a message... Apparently King dropped their trademark(s)...?????

Ah well.. Thanks to all who signed the petition.  I suppose somebody at King grew a brain.   
....???

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Shouldn't that not be possible to file a lawsuit anymore (if the game was released already before the copyright)?


now if the game is still in development, then yeah I think they have grounds to do that... but really, they're just bullying small time devs

 

[William MC]

I signed. That's just rediculous, I totally disagree with their being allowed to do that. Candy is a word that almost everyone in the world probably says at least once a day, and Saga is also highly used, it's a synonym for series and very common. How about the Dragonball Sagas? There are plenty of Dragonball games, and I'm sure Funimation wouldn't take lightly to any action against them, just as anyone else would not for something so simple.

 

[Shaz]

Idiots. Don't know the details, but I do recall another company stating that THEY made a game using the name CANDY prior to Candy Crush Saga. KING then found ANOTHER game using the same word that was made even earlier, and bought the game off the developers, so THEY had the claim of the earlier game to use the word.

 

[Probotector 200X]

I kinda wish Square-Enix could do something about these jokers, after all, they've had a series named "Saga" for 25 years. (I guess that's different as copyright laws in different countries are different? But wouldn't KING try and go after a new Saga series game if there was any and they were released in the US?)

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

I believe both Disastercake and King are in the USA....  (Way to make us look bad, candycrush stupid!)

CCS just copied bejewled anyway...

 

[Vinedrius]

That is the one of most stupid things I have ever heard in gaming, wow.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

That is the one of most stupid things I have ever heard in gaming, wow.

Stupid or not, it's a real thing! D: Some people, I swear...

 

[ShadowLurk]

Signed the petition. Copyrighting an idea is alright, copyrighting one word is just plain ridiculous.

Candy Crush Saga's idea is not even original....

 

[Clord]

Signed the petition. Copyrighting an idea is alright, copyrighting one word is just plain ridiculous.


Candy Crush Saga's idea is not even original....

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html


Actually at least in US you can't copyright an idea, like in most countries it is not allowed either.


Also in this case they trademarked a word, copyrighting is nowadays automatic in most countries and is a different thing.

 

[ShadowLurk]

That's a bad usage of that word for me. What I want to mean is the particular expression of idea.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Even so, copyrighting a single COMMONLY USED word is just.... being a bully!

This isn't the only case of the big boys being a bully. Another company called "Yoga GLo" tried to copyright a particular camera angle... (WTF?)

Back on topic though... This could SERIOUSLY hinder developers like us who wish to go commercial! D:

 

[whitesphere]

I'm 100% sure that what the Candy Saga people are doing is 100% illegal.  They are using their lawyers and money to bully a small time developer.  I have a large supply of words which fit what I think of this, but they are all rated R.  

See here:  http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ34.pdf

Copywright protection not available for short titles, words or phrases.

And, trademarks have the same legal opinion:  http://www.trademark.iastate.edu/basics/

"Words that are common or ordinary receive less protection unless they have developed public recognition due to their long use in the market place. These type of marks are said to have acquired a secondary meaning."

And, the words Candy and Crush are already obviously widely used, so they would fall under this.  I can't think of a serious lawsuit that would say this company can trademark such common words.

That is why normally companies which want to heavily allude to something will deliberately misspell it, so they can trademark the phrase.

I think the best thing to do is forward the petition to EVERYONE you know who uses Candy Crush.  If some of them care at least enough to stop using Candy Crush and switch to a different game, it will hurt the company more.

Perhaps send it to a news organization who could publish it.  I'm sure it would make news:  "Candy Crush developer trying to crush competition"  And, perhaps, forward it to the local District Attorney's office in whatever state the parent company is incorporated in.

The ultimate threat, although hardly ever used, is the state could dissolve the corporation by rescinding its writ of incorporation.

 

[Ebon]

Signed.

What a disgusting, unethical practise. If companies will be allowed to restrict the creative freedom of developers like this, then I foresee a pitch black future for developers everywhere.

 

[Seacliff]

Watch out Crush Soda, they're after you next.

 

[Clord]

I wonder if I should remove "saga" from my commercial game project I'm doing. However that kind of feels like giving in to this crap and I really like the word.

 

[Mouser]

First of all - copyright isn't involved with this at all. You can't copyright a title. This is a trademark issue.

Prior art, by itself, doesn't invalidate a trademark application. Even a common phrase by itself doesn't if the usage is specific enough: see Donald Trump and "You're Fired!".

Candy has been used in game titles going all the way back to Candyland - I don't see this getting much traction as a Trademark..

The scope of the trademark would have to be pretty narrow (ie: only applying to the words when applied to a game with similar style and mechanics to his).

 

[Traveling Bard]

They did this before with Banner Saga. Check out this article: http://kotaku.com/why-the-ridiculous-candy-crush-vs-banner-saga-conflict-1507064357

it explains the legal stuff as to why they went after a game that obviously is very different from theirs. 

 

[Mon Dez]

King is not some steward of the public trust; it makes video games for profit and like every corporation, it will act in its interest and no one else's. 

Well this pretty much sums the whole ordeal.

 

[zacheatscrackers]

Man, it's always the bigger devs that crave domination and hound the smaller ones.

****in disgusting. Don't worry, I signed.