King has abandoned its trademark for the word “candy” in the U.S., the company has confirmed to GameInformer.
“King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher,” a King representative said. “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. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP.”
King is also currently opposing Stoic’s attempt to trademark the name of its game The Banner Saga. The company said that while they do not believe Stoic is attempting to capitalize on King’s success with the Candy Crush Saga, if they didn’t oppose the trademark it would make it easier for others to copy their games. The company was also recently accused of cloning and releasing another developer’s game.