The ridiculous King Candy and Saga Trademark Saga appears to have come to an end. Very quietly, Stoic, the developer of indie RPG The Banner Saga, and Albert Ransom, developer of puzzle mobile game CandySwipe, have announced that they have come to agreements with King over their trademark challenges over the use of the words Saga and Candy.

Over the last three months, King has been using their massive size and money power to try to trademark the words “Candy” and “Saga.” In doing so, they’ve also been challenging the trademark of other games using those words, regardless of how much or how little these games resembled King’s flagship Candy Crush Saga game.

Two games that were targeted by King were The Banner Saga, a Nordic-themed fantasy RPG that’s not available on mobile devices, and CandySwipe, a mobile game that seems very much similar to Candy Crush but predates King’s creation by two years but was challenged on the basis of an older trademark that King had purchased that predated CandySwipe. In these disputes, King challenged the use of the words “Saga” and “Candy” in each of those games’ titles.

However, it appears as though calmer heads have prevailed. Both Stoic and Albert Ransom have released statements that indicate all is now well.

Stoic’s statement was pretty generic but said:

Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic’s The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future.

For his part, Ransom changed the post of the CandySwipe website documenting the legal dispute with King to the following statement:

I am happy to announce that I have amicably resolved my dispute with King over my CandySwipe trademark and that I am withdrawing my opposition to their mark and they are withdrawing their counterclaim against mine. I have learned that they picked the CANDY CRUSH name before I released my game and that they were never trying to take my game away. Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players.

After what they’ve tried, you’ll excuse me if I’m not willing to completely trust King after this whole Trademark Saga. Granted, they’re only using (or abusing, depending on your perspective) trademark law in a way that was allowed by the current state of trademark law. Hopefully that gets fixed so situations like this don’t arise again. I’m not too hopeful, though.

Related:
Candy Crush Makers Challenging The Banner Saga Trademark
King Crushes CandySwipe In Ongoing Candy Trademark Saga
King Withdraws Candy Trademark Application but Nothing Really Changes

Source: Eurogamer