King Juggernaut Takes Aim At Small Indie Developer

In a new twist in the ongoing King saga (assuming I am allowed to use that word these days) it has emerged that Stoic are not the only developers being targeted by the internet giant. Recently King made applications to trademark the words "candy" and "saga" as well as the game title "candy crush saga". They then proceeded to attack small time developers Stoic over their game The Banner Saga, a title which bears no resemblance whatsoever to anything King have ever created.

The internet backlash was so great that King even appear to have changed their domain name from king.com to royalgames.com, presumably in a bid to distance themselves from all the negative publicity. However with this latest stunt that backlash is going to get even stronger.

Albert Ransom, the founder of Runsome Apps, is a little man in a big mans world. On November 15th 2010 he released a game called Candyswipe. This game is a match-3 app with a candy theme. Parts of it look eerily similar to King's runaway success Candy Crush Saga. However before you cry "clone" it is worth noting that Candy Crush Saga was not released until 4 months AFTER Candyswipe made its debut on king.com.

Ransom was hesitant to throw around accusations of cloning as he rightly says the match 3 style is slightly different.  However he does point out however that:

Their game (and name) closely resembles CandySwipe; so much so that CandySwipe is often ridiculed as a Candy Crush knock off. This infringes on OUR registered trademark and good will.

 

CandySwipe's original app icon and candy pieces released in 2010 [are similar to Candy Crush Saga]. Even the ‘Sweet!’ is similar.

 

- Albert Ransom, Runsome Apps

Ransom isn't out to attack anyone he’s just worried about the same thing King is, consumer confusion. The similarities between his game and King's have caused all kinds of issues for the small time developer, who created the game as a tribute to his late mother. Negative reviews based on customer confusion have stifled his game for years and now King is trying to stomp his spirit out completely. As you can see from the image below, as Random himself says, there are similarities between the style of the two games.

As a small indie developer Ransom was quick to protect his work and was awarded the CANDYSWIPE trademark in July of 2011. When he read that King had applied to trademark Candy Crush Saga he did the only thing he could, he opposed it.

The opposition filing was made on April 9, 2013 and includes the following:

Applicant’s mark, CANDY CRUSH SAGA, is confusingly similar to Opposer’s mark, CANDYSWIPE. Applicant’s goods and services… are also very similar to Opposer’s goods and services. Both marks, CANDYSWIPE, and CANDY CRUSH SAGA represent similar games with similar layouts and game play where users select and match candy pieces to remove those candy pieces for points (or scoring) within both the Applicant’s, and Opposer’s games.

 

Furthermore, consumers are leaving 1 and 2 star ratings along with negative comments within Opposer’s game’s public, "ratings and comments" sections within the said trade channels. Consumers are claiming they were looking for, and expecting Applicant’s game, CANDY CRUSH SAGA, and expressed their disappointment when they realized, Opposer’s game, CANDYSWIPE is not associated with Applicant’s game. As a result, Opposer’s game is potentially being ranked lower within the said trade channels due to the negative feedback generated by this confusion; thus, causing damage to Opposer’s mark.

 

- US Patent Office Trademark Opposition

 

However King will stop at nothing to take control of a market they see as rightfully theirs. They have recently bought rights to a game called Candy Crusher;  with the sole purpose of using these rights  to argue that CandySwipe's trademark should be taken away, since Candy Crusher predates it.

This dirty move was the final straw for Ransom who has released an open letter to King regarding the situation. In the letter Ransom outlines the history behind his game, the family he is trying to support and his disgust towards King, a sentiment shared by developers and gamers all over the globe right now.

The letter makes for a grim read as Ransom seemingly just wanted everything to be resolved peacefully. The indie developer has infact been so quiet that it is only now that news of his trademark opposition is reaching the media.

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.

 

- Albert Ransom

In their own recent open letter King stated that

We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large - have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create.

 

- Riccardo, King

Based on their recent behaviour it seems King are talking the talk without walking the walk. Time to start living up to those promises you made King or this is going to get very nasty.

If you'd like to support CandySwipe, the app is available on both the Itunes Store and Google Play.