King now targeting The Banner Saga

The makers of Candy Crush Saga, who yesterday hit news feeds after it emerged that they had secured a trademark ruling over the use of the word ‘Candy' (and were looking to enforce it against other developers who had used that word in the titles of their games), have decided that one trademark claim is not enough and are now going after games using the word ‘Saga' in their title.

This Notice of Opposition appears to show that King is contesting independent studio Stoic's application to trademark the word ‘Saga' as part of the name for their game, The Banner Saga. In the linked document King argues that Stoic should not be granted the trademark for their game, with the casual game developer suggesting that the fact that 13 of their games use the word ‘Saga' in their titles means that it would create brand confusion for their customers.

Yesterday King revealed that they weren't interested in pursuing all trademark claims, as explained in the following statement (via GI.biz):

We have trademarked the word ‘candy' in the EU, as our IP is constantly being infringed and we have to enforce our rights and to protect our players from confusion.

We don't enforce against all uses of candy - some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so.

The particular App in this instance was called 'Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land', but its icon in the App store just says 'Candy Slots', focussing heavily on our trademark.

As well as infringing our and other developer's IP, use of keywords like this as an App name is also a clear breach of Apple's terms of use. We believe this App name was a calculated attempt to use other companies' IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings.

Having released that statement it appears that the sentiments held within might not ring entirely true (The Banner Saga is not on the App Store and is not competing in the same space as Candy Crush or any of King's portfolio of games), and that in fact the company seem to be intent on pursuing games/developers that they feel are taking advantage of words they believe belong to them.

The reaction on the internet hasn't been positive for King, with Markus "Notch" Persson (of Minecraft fame) taking to Twitter to air his frustrations, sending a message to his former employers: "@King_Games I am very sad to see that you are turning more and more evil over time. You are hurting the industry. Please stop."

Notch was joined by George Broussard (the creator of Duke Nukem) who Tweeted: "I don't have any King apps installed on my phone, but if I did, I'd be deleting them right now in meaningless protest."

What makes this latest challenge so difficult to fathom is the game that they're challenging. The Banner Saga uses the word ‘Saga' in a manner that completely reflects the dictionary definition and historical grounding of the word: with it being an epic Scandinavian-flavoured story. We've contacted Stoic for word on their position, and will update you when we know more.