14 DAY TRIAL // King, the developer of Candy Crush Saga and various other social games with "saga" in their names, has explained just why it has opposed the trademark request of Stoic for The Banner Saga, as it would set a dangerous precedent for other developers.
King is a big name in the realm of social gaming and it has already sparked controversy yesterday when it gained a trademark for the word "candy" and decided to go after other video games that use the word in their title.
Earlier today, a new notice of opposition against a trademark request was made by Stoic, the team behind the recently released The Banner Saga.
The studio argued in its notice that the game would damage King's existing trademarks for Bubble Witch Saga, for example, and cause confusion amongst gamers.
Now, a spokesperson for King has released a statement to GI detailing just why the social games developer contradicted The Banner Saga.
"King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content. However, like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future," the dev said.
"In this case, that means preserving our ability to enforce our rights in cases where other developers may try to use the Saga mark in a way which infringes our IP rights and causes player confusion. If we had not opposed Banner Saga's trade mark application, it would be much easier for real copy cats to argue that their use of 'Saga' was legitimate."
According to King, if it didn't oppose the trademark request for The Banner Saga, other developers would start forwarding their own copycat trademarks and games.
"This is an important issue for King because we already have a series of games where 'Saga' is key to the brand which our players associate with a King game; Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, and so on. All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones."
Even so, it's unclear if The Banner Saga trademark will move forward.