Score one for the little guys! I’ve been covering the King/ Candy Crush controversy for some weeks now, and it looks as if the company is now tapping out in light of the recent bad press.
In what many considered a HUGE overreach by the company (after rumors they would attempt to trademark the very word “candy” itself), the company released this statement: “King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher . Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market.”
If you’re not completely familiar with the rest of the story, several indie developers have accused King of stealing their games and attempting to run them totally out of business. One such example is a game called Pac Avoid , whose creator claims that it pitched the idea to King.com just to see it turned down and later cloned by another studio and later sold by King.
As this can be seen as the Candy Crush maker finally loosening their death grip a bit, it’s important to know that they still maintain they have the right to pursue the trademark claims in other countries. So who knows if this is truly the end of the story?