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Rival tries to crush King's 'candy' trademark in UK

Cut the Rope maker files to cancel King's confectionery trademark in the European Union.

Jennifer Van Grove Former Senior Writer / News
Jennifer Van Grove covered the social beat for CNET. She loves Boo the dog, CrossFit, and eating vegan. Her jokes are often in poor taste, but her articles are not.
Jennifer Van Grove

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In a candy saga of a different kind, UK game studio ZeptoLab is challenging rival King's registration of the "candy" mark in the European Union.

King is the soon-to-go-public studio behind Candy Crush Saga, the immensely popular mobile and social game with 97 million daily players. The 12-year-old company's recent rise to fame and fortune is largely due to the singular success of its match-3, candy-crushing game.

Previously, King successfully obtained a trademark for "candy" in the UK, but the company was unable to accomplish the same feat in the US. Now ZeptoLab, maker of the Cut the Rope gaming franchise, is hoping to cancel the UK candy mark for the good of all game makers -- and its own candy-eating character Om Nom, of course. The studio said that it submitted an official claim in London on March 20 to start the process of canceling King's candy mark.

"ZeptoLab aims to allow game developers and others to freely use the term 'candy' to refer to any games that may include candy," the UK company said in a press release.

If successful, ZeptoLab's challenge would prevent King from continuing to enforce its mark, which the company has reportedly done in the past to prevent other candy-named games from piggybacking on its success or ripping off its popular title. ZeptoLab's legal filing would also, if successful, dissolve all UK applications for the registration of "candy," the company said.

King did not immediately return a request for comment.