If you’ve been lucky enough to not have received a Candy Crush Saga invite on Facebook, you’re one of the lucky few. This game has become an instant hit on both Facebook, and mobile devices like the iPhone, up to the point where King, the company behind the game, has now effectively won a trademark application for the world “Candy” in the UK. This trademark gives King exclusive rights to own the name “Candy” in anything that has to do with games, and as a result, a lot of competitors are unhappy.
In signs of protest, Apple’s App Store is currently being bombarded with around 100 games that are themed as “Candy” games. This protest is being organized by the Candy Jam website, and the idea is that from today and until February 3rd, developers build games to fight against the trademark trolling. To protect themselves, these developers are using alternate names like “CanD”, “CanDieCanDieCanDie”, “ThisGameIsNotAboutCandy”, etc.
What makes this drama worse is that King is also looking to trademark the name “Candy” in the United States, so like it or not, the annoying Candy Crush Saga invites on Facebook are not going away any time soon.