In Korea, mobile game ‘Candy Crush Saga’ became
rapidly popular among smartphone users once it is linked with ‘Kakaotalk’. Many
people downloaded it in their smartphones,
and it is not difficult to see
people playing it in the subway or in their spare times.
‘Candy Crush Saga’ has
millions of fans not only in Korea，around the world.
King.com
Last year February, ‘King’, videogame maker of ‘Candy
Crush Saga’, filed an application of ‘Candy’ trademark for game and clothing.
US trademark office approved the filing of ‘King’, last month 15th.
Albeit US
trademark office approved it, people can file an objection for 1 month from 15th
as time left till it will be published.
This approval
put other game developer companies in obstinate predicament, game developers
who has used ‘Candy’ word in their applications were forced to change the title
of games or need to prove
that they did not infringe upon ‘candy’ trademark.
USPTO.gov
Actually
application developer companies already got a notice via Apple telling that
they infringed upon ‘Candy’ trademark of ‘King’. Notice requested that they
need to stop the service infringing upon ‘Candy’ trademark, or they need to
prove that they did not infringe upon it.
This notice initiated many game
developers’ opposition.
candycrushsaga.com
Benney Hsu,
game developer of ‘All Candy Casino Slot’, addressed that this notice makes
many game developer frustrated and annoyed. He insisted that contents of games
are different, but only because they are involving candy word and now it
becomes trademark infringement. They asserted
that ‘Candy’ is a very common word, as it is being used in sweet manufacturing
business to be differentiated from other merchandises, not from other products.
Flickr.com(MeLY3o)
However, ‘King’
contended that “‘All Candy Casino Slot’ was a calculated attempt to use other
companies’ IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings.”
And “is likely lead to customer confusion and damage our brand”.
King has been
actively taking actions against other game companies which are deemed to be
infringing upon its IP rights since last year, by filing a suit or by other
means,
thus King seems to gain even more momentum by this ‘Candy’ being
trademarked.
In Korea, ‘Anipang
2’, smartphone game released not long time ago, is embroiled in a controversy
that it copied ‘Candy Crush Saga’. Currently King established a corporate body
to provide a service linked with ‘Kakaotalk’ in Korea, so now people’s interest
is focusing on how King will react to this.
corp.sundaytoz.com
Protection of
IR rights owner is important, of course, however, many things require careful
consideration in this debate. Revenue of ‘Candy Crush Saga’ is about 1 million
US dollar per day, despite of it being free download game, and it is not
difficult to infer from that this game is brining huge profit to King and
Apple.
Protection of
legitimate IP rights and very common word ‘Candy’ being trademarked which might
hide the underlying motive of pursuing economic profit,
drawing a certain line
between being legitimate and being reasonable seems to provoke furious debates.
And this is why King’s response in the future is a hot potato which we should
pay more attention.
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