Apparently yes, they can.
Reports yesterday confirmed King’s successful attempt at trademarking the word ‘Candy’, causing a bit of an uproar after many think the word ‘Candy’ is too common to trademark.
According to CVG, “The Company behind Candy Crush Saga has successfully registered the word ‘Candy’ as a trademark, and has now begun asking indie developers to remove their games from the iOS App Store if they feature the word in the title.”
New reports suggest that King have now taken this a step further by filling a trademark for the word ‘Saga’ after Stoic Studios trademarked their recent game release last week, ‘The Banner Saga’.
A notice of opposition has been filled to the US Patent and Trademark Office asking for Stoic to be refused the potential trademark for the name ‘The Banner Saga’, King comments on The Banner Saga’s potential of causing confusion because of the use of the word ‘Saga’ within it’s title.
Stoic Studio’s game received positive feedback and they have announced plans for releasing further chapters of The Banner Saga in the near future; The Banner Saga is a popular RPG fantasy game set in a Viking style land.
How do you feel about this aggressive use of trademarking across games? Are King entitled to hold the rights to the word ‘Saga’ given the critical and commercial success of the Candy Crush Saga game? Or is this just a business driven effort to wipe out any competition?
Laura Ash / @lauraanneash
