Hey I wanted to make all of you aware of a very controversial decision by the US Trademark Office.  King.com Limited the makers of Candy Crush are attempting to trademark the word "candy."  Small gaming companies are already receiving cease and desist orders to remove their games from app stores.  This is a dangerous precedent to set for a major gaming company to trademark such a common generic word.  We as gamers cannot allow them to rob the industry of innovation.  

 

More info can be found here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/21/stealing-candy-from-babies-king-embrace-the-aristocracy/

 

And the petition can be signed here: http://www.change.org/petitions/us-patent-and-trademark-office-do-not-allow-king-to-trademark-the-words-candy-or-saga?share_id=KsLqhigvLo&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

 

 

Signed.  Bunch of morons... the fact that a petition like that needs to exist boggles my mind.

That is insane just signed it 

Signed.

This is ridiculous! These people really want to Trademark the word candy?

Candy is a thing, a commonly known English word, I think that it should remain Trademark-free.

how are they allowed to do something stupid like this? also, signed.

Oh this must be a joke... Oh wait. No. Nope. Nonononono. Why? Why... just why? "Oh hey, let's trademark a goddamn word that is used almost every day."

I signed this earlier today, After i sat here for 5 minutes facepalming.

 

This is the most stupidest thing i have heard, If it's not stupid News reports, it's businesses doing stupid stuff.. If everything is like this now.. I feel sorry for the future generation that will be here in the next 10-20 years

Signed

Signed it.

Signed and shared.

Pathetic.

Trademarks are actually domain-specific; a trademark for "candy" in the context of video games wouldn't prevent, say, a candy manufacturer from using the term "candy" (if they tried, they'd get slapped down so hard by the court, since you can't trademark dictionary words in the context of their dictionary meaning). All this would give them the rights to is "candy" in the name of video games. Even then, only if there actually is a likelihood of confusion with the old mark - trademarks are very, very different from copyright and patents in that respect, as they only exist to prevent customer confusion.

Plus, they actually don't have a US trademark yet. They're about to enter, or have just entered, the 30-day challenge period, where anyone negatively affected can formally challenge the mark. They have EU trademark, but not US.

Hm, this must be a Weazel News report.....nope. Signed.

Signed. Imagine this ↓

 

Candy™

Board meeting at King.com Limited HQ:

 

CEO: "Now, moving onto the next part of our meeting - Mr. Smith, dictionary, please."

(Smith hands the dictionary)

CEO: "Today, we shall trademark... (looks for a word) Tower!"

(applause)

Does anyone here watch Kitchen Nightmares?

 

There was an episode about a restaurant in Baltimore called Cafe Hon, that actually did trademark the word "hon". The public was outraged and the place almost went out of business. The owner ultimately had to release her trademark on the word.

 

The idea of trademarking such a common word is simply ridiculous in my opinion, and I'll never understand how things like this get approved.

Edited January 22, 201412 yr by johnclark1102

It's rather simple: They aren't claiming that they own the word "candy". That's not what trademark is. They're claiming that they're using the term to brand their products in a particular market segment, and that it isn't just literally descriptive of the product, but rather is distinctive to their particular brand. As such, use of the term in that market by other manufacturers can cause customer confusion - people might assume that a product is made by them if it has a similar name, so doing this prevents that confusion.

Concrete example: Did you know that Apple trademarked the word "apple"? It's a common word! Yes, but they trademarked it only in businesses where they operate, and it's invalid in other domains. Furthermore, in cases where it's used by someone else, not as a trademark but as a descriptive term, it's protected under fair use.

Really don't understand how thing such as this even make it to this point... 

 

Signed.

 

Edited January 22, 201412 yr by Tozza