IGDA says King's 'predatory efforts' oppose industry's values

The International Game Developers Association believes that social games developer King's "overreaching" candy trademark application and "predatory efforts" to enforce it oppose the values of the game development community.

"While we understand and respect the appropriate exercise of Trademark rights, King's overreaching filing in its application for the Trademark for its game 'Candy Crush Saga,'" a statement on the organization's website reads, "and its predatory efforts to apply that mark to each separate word contained in that name, are in opposition to the values of openness and cooperation we support industry wide, and directly contradict the statement King's CEO, Riccardo Zacconi, made on 27 January."

King acquired the trademark for "candy" in the European Union with a pending application for a similar trademark in the U.S. In the open letter, Zacconi defended King's trademark on "candy," saying the company is "just trying to prevent others from creating games that unfairly capitalize on our success."

The company also opposed developer Stoic's attempt to trademark the title of its Kickstarter-funded game, The Banner Saga. King was later called out by an indie developer of cloning his game Scamperghost with the now removed Pac-Avoid. Zacconi apologized for publishing the clone and that the opposition to Stoic's trademark application was to avoid a possible future legal precedent.

The IGDA states that its Business and Legal Special Interest Group will provide an analysis of the King-related issues soon.

The Candy Crush Saga developer filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week for an initial public offering possibly worth up to $500 million. The company hopes to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol "KING."