Candy Crush Saga dev opposes The Banner Saga trademark

Candy Crush Saga developer King has filed a "Notice of Opposition" to Stoic's trademark for The Banner Saga. The legal notice claims a "likelihood of confusion," but in a separate statement King claims this is just a necessary legal step to protect their brand from clones.

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Candy Crush Saga developer King recently raised eyebrows by trademarking the word "candy," but the potential legal entanglement fun doesn't stop there. King has also apparently filed a "Notice of Opposition" with the US Patent and Trademark Office against Stoic's trademark for The Banner Saga.

Legal documents posted on NeoGAF detail the complaint. "Due to the similarity between Applicant’s claimed mark, The Banner Saga, and Opposer’s [King’s] Saga Marks, the closely related nature of the goods and services of the respective parties, customers and potential customers are likely to believe that Applicant’s goods originate from Opposer, resulting in a likelihood of confusion in the marketplace, and damage to Opposer," it reads in part. Most of the language is similar, regarding brand confusion.

For their part, King has said that their opposition is not to The Banner Saga itself, but rather simply so that they have firm legal ground against copycats. In a statement to IGN, the company said it is not trying to stop The Banner Saga from using its name, and does not believe it's trying to build on King's brand. But, copyright law being as it is, they need to take "appropriate steps" to protect themselves.

"In this case, that means preserving our ability to enforce our rights in cases where other developers may try to use the Saga mark in a way which infringes our IP rights and causes player confusion," the statement reads. "If we had not opposed Banner Saga's trade mark application, it would be much easier for real copy cats to argue that their use of 'Saga' was legitimate.

"This is an important issue for King because we already have a series of games where 'Saga' is key to the brand which our players associate with a King game; Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and so on. All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones."

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  • reply
    January 22, 2014 9:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Candy Crush Saga dev opposes The Banner Saga trademark.

    Candy Crush Saga developer King has filed a "Notice of Opposition" to Stoic's trademark for The Banner Saga. The legal notice claims a "likelihood of confusion," but in a separate statement King claims this is just a necessary legal step to protect their brand from clones.

    • reply
      January 22, 2014 9:09 AM

      If anything Candy Crush should have to forfeit the name due to being a saga only in the loosest sense of the word. The Illiad it 'aint.

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      January 22, 2014 9:15 AM

      Wow what a load of crap. I hope Stoic shuts them down.

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        January 22, 2014 9:42 AM

        Stoic is like less than a dozen people vrs a company that has literally millions of dollars to waste on lawsuits like this. Gee, who is going to win.

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      January 22, 2014 9:22 AM

      Well if Stoic needs legal money I hope they ask gamers, rather than let these creeps troll.

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      January 22, 2014 9:26 AM

      I honestly didn't care about my Facebook being bombarded with Candy Crush updates from friends, but now I hope the company dies in a fire.

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      January 22, 2014 9:29 AM

      Ugh despicable behavior. Prey on indie devs who actually bring something positive to gaming.

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      January 22, 2014 9:30 AM

      Our kids play a bunch of games that have the name candy in them, candy maker I think is one of them. Is the game just going to get pulled off their iPad when the trademark hammer comes down?

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      January 22, 2014 9:33 AM

      this is such immense bull shit.

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      January 22, 2014 9:43 AM

      Something something hero becomes the villain something something.

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      January 22, 2014 2:25 PM

      What the fuck? You can't trademark the word "saga". Fuck these guys for doing this to an indie dev.

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      January 22, 2014 5:54 PM

      I am so tired of seeing this misreported and/or misinterpreted. King is taking steps to trademark ( NOT copyright) the name for its IPs. Trademark protection is different from patent protection in many ways but the aspect that is most relevant here is that King must take formal legal measure to protects its trademark once granted or it stands to lose the legal protection the trademark grants. Allowing Stoic to release The Banner Saga without any opposition could weaken future efforts by King to protect a "Saga" trademark; a future copycat could point to King not raising opposition to The Banner Saga as evidence that it had abandoned the trademark. The outcome will likely be a formal agreement between Stoic and King that allows them both to use their similar game titles.

      Whether you think the use of "Candy" or "Saga" in the context of video games should be protectable by trademarks is a separate matter. King is doing what they must to protect those trademarks and so far has seemed to act in good faith.

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      January 23, 2014 1:03 AM

      I hope the makers of Bejeweled etc games sue King to hell for copying their game.

      Banner Saga is million times more a better game than Candy Crush shite.

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