Backlash Aftermath: King Suddenly Turns Amicable In Trademark Disputes

from the thanks-internet dept

Thu, Apr 24th 2014 2:56pm — Timothy Geigner

When King, of Candy Crush fame, decided to lose its legal mind over supposed trademark violations by roughly everyone, the backlash on the internet was swift and decisive. Entire platforms developed out of the ether with the seemingly sole purpose of trolling the hell out of King. The most notable dispute, it seemed, was over a game called The Banner Saga, which King insisted represented a grave threat to their business model of allowing people to match up three or more digital representations of candied items. There too, the backlash was relatively severe.

Severe enough, it appears, to get King to suddenly transmogrify itself into an amicable tech beast.

According to both Stoic and Ransom, King has quietly and amicably settled the trademark disputes with both companies.

"Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future," reads a brief statement on the Stoic website.

This result provides evidence once again that these David versus Goliath IP disputes can often be resolved with a little sunshine and public shaming. King acted like a bully and once their actions were spotlighted the public sprung into action to make their voices heard.

Perhaps the more important lesson is one served to King and other companies that might be tempted to behave similarly. It's one thing to protect your brand, but it's quite another to open up a legal salvo, with all of its necessary expenses, only to end up in exactly the same place you began. No names have been changed in response to the disputes. The only real result in all of this is now everyone thinks a little less of King and a bunch of lawyers made a little bit of money. Sort of makes the whole process seem silly, no?

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Filed Under: banner saga, candy crush, games, king, saga, trademark
Companies: king, ransom, stoic

13 Comments

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Mason Wheeler (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:11pm

David and Goliath has to be one of the most misunderstood stories in the history of storytelling.

On this side, we have a big guy with a spear and heavy armor, who is going to move slowly. On the other side, standing well out of spear range, we have a trained slinger who is able to launch stones hard enough and accurate enough to kill bears and lions. Who's the favorite to win? This really should be obvious, and yet everyone gets it wrong.

The only surprising thing about the story is that at no point did the big guy ever seem to realize just how screwed he was!
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Avatar28 (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:17pm

a small error
bunch of lawyers made a lot of money.

There, fixed that for you.
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John Fenderson (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:24pm

Re:
Not to mention that David became King David. King David is the one, if we remember our Bible, who spotted a hottie named Bathsheba and summoned her to him so he could bang her. After doing that, he had a little problem with her husband, Uriah.

Uriah was a soldier in David's army, and David gave him leave so he would go home and have sex with her. That way if David had gotten her pregnant, Uriah wouldn't get suspicious.

Uriah refused to abandon his fellow soldiers just to get a little nookie, so David sent him to the front lines where he was promptly killed.

David wasn't exactly a stand-up guy. It makes me wonder who was actually the villain in the David vs Goliath tale.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:27pm

Re: Re:
There wasn't really a villain; just a guy smart enough to fight effectively and a less-smart guy who didn't realize that he stood exactly as good a chance of winning as that poor mook who pulled a sword on Indiana Jones, and for the same basic reason.
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John Fenderson (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:28pm

Re: Re: Re:
Oh, I know, but Goliath is typically portrayed as the villain nonetheless. Even when I read this story as a child, that seemed specious.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:56pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Well, even if you don't see anything wrong with his blasphemy, the whole "I'm the biggest, toughest guy around and if I beat your champion, we get to enslave your nation" thing really ought to rub you the wrong way. IMO anyone with an attitude like that deserves a stone in the forehead.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 3:58pm

Shouldn't it be illegal?
Marketing by lawsuit allows marketers to reach broad swaths of a sector faster and easier than traditional pay media. By using the voices of interested and educated key opinion leaders, companies can establish brand recognition and long term interest in their activities. Best of all, complete strategies include brand reshaping and legal safeguards designed to shield participants and move forward using the momentum generated in new and profitable ways.
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Loki, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:06pm

Doesn't impress me. The fact that so many people are more than willing to mobilize because of some game, their favorite TV show got cancelled, or Ben Affleck got cast as Batman, yet mostly sit around doing nothing while the government whittles away our freedoms and civil liberties and allows the economy to be continually wrecked (or even worse that people allow this to happen BECAUSE they are to busy worrying that Ben Affleck is Batman).

While this is not an insignificant matter, it's simple a symptom (and a minor one at that) of a much bigger problem. But then, in a society increasingly indoctrinated to treat symptoms and largely ignore the actual problems, this isn't all that surprising.
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Eponymous Coward, 24 Apr 2014 @ 5:47pm

I think the take away is...
King realized that by "protecting their brand" they were infact doing the very opposite in tarnishing it amongst their customers/potential customers. Basically the backlash illustrated that we all can remove the economic consideration from such potential strategies rendering them nothing more but futile demostrations.
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Ninja (profile), 25 Apr 2014 @ 2:44am

Next game in King's portfolio: The Trademark Troll Saga. With hefty banners.
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Anonymous Howard (profile), 25 Apr 2014 @ 4:14am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Are we still talking about Goliath or the USA?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2014 @ 5:40am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
At the time Goliath was the villain. Just because David flipped his lid and became the villain later on does not change the past.

But in the end... God took care of it. Always does, even if we never notice it.
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Pragmatic, 29 Apr 2014 @ 8:15am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
^This. Goliath of Gath was the Phillistine champion, and they were oppressing the crap out of the Israelites, up to and including banning them from owning swords or spears, and apparently killing all their smiths - they had to go to the Phillistines to get their farming implements sharpened.

The Bible, 1 Samuel 13:20
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