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Candy Crush Saga maker King has abandoned its attempt to trademark the word “Candy” in the U.S. after acquiring the rights to a “Candy Crusher” trademark filed by Harrier Software last year.
“This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP,” the company said in an emailed statement.
Officially, at least, getting Candy Crusher out of the way was the reason King, which recently filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, dropped the trademark filing. But in the weeks leading up to its IPO it fell under criticism from the game development community for its IP battles.
In addition to the “Candy” battle, King had opposed the attempt by independent studio Stoic to trademark “The Banner Saga.” The large company said that its Candy Crush Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and Bubble With Saga had built a brand around the word “Saga,” even though those casual games are in a totally different genre from The Banner Saga, a fantasy tactical role-playing game.
Not opposing The Banner Saga trademark would have given other “Saga” namers an easy out in future IP battles, King argued at the time.
A King spokesperson declined to comment, though that dispute appears to be unaffected by the “Candy” news. Stoic also declined to comment for this story; in January, the company told Polygon that it didn’t appreciate King’s tactics and was “humbled” by fans’ support.
The battle over the “Candy” and “Saga” IP has triggered an outpouring of serious protests, jokey tweets and even whole games by independent developers. Those devs submitted some 457 candy-themed games to Candy Jam, an online contest made to protest King’s moves.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
