Candy Crush Saga dev won't oppose The Banner Saga's name
Stand down, everyone: Candy Crush Saga developer King won't attempt to enforce a trademark on the word "saga" against Stoic's The Banner Saga. GI.biz reports that King claimed in December The Banner Saga was "confusingly and deceptively similar to [King's] previously used Saga marks" but King has issued a statement to make it clear it's not trying to take out the RPG:
"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."
Although King is doing exactly what it's supposed to do from a business standpoint to protect its product names, trying to trademark words like "saga" and "candy" is a bit laughable to the outside world. King doesn't officially hold these trademarks yet, and is moving to protecting its interests in this preliminary phase.
If you need a recent example of two games that clashed over the use of a common word, you need look no further than the lawsuit between Bethesda Softworks and Minecraft creator Mojang over The Elder Scrolls and Scrolls, respectively. If Bethesda didn't protect "scrolls," it could have lost the trademark. That story also ended amicably with lawyers getting paid and Scrolls retaining its name through a license.
In less litigious news, it seems The Banner Saga will soon be coming to an iPad near you. "We are definitely bringing [The Banner Saga] game to tablets, I believe our first port will be iOS, but obviously nothing is set in stone as of yet," Alex Thomas of Stoic Studios told PocketGamer.
