King, the maker of the highly-addictive game app Candy Crush, is suing the makers of the game that the former reportedly found inspiration from, said a report from Metro UK. In an earlier report, another indie developer, Mathew Cox, had accused the European game developer of infringing the trademarks of other people.
Metro said King's bizarre legal challenges against several indie game makers of late was the global gaming giant's attempt to protect its cash cow by pursuing a trademark of its game's keywords.
King has lodged a legal claim against the makers of CandySwipe and said that the latter was a clone of its moneymaker. Metro UK said this was odd, considering that CandySwipe came out two years prior to the release of Candy Crush. King's lawsuit is also asking the court to have the trademark of CandySwipe cancelled. The UK online news site noted that the injunction King is pursuing was related to the global game maker buying the rights to Candy Crusher, an earlier game. If King were successful on all their legal strategies, Metro UK said that the European firm will be able to lay claim that it is the owner of the original trademark of everything Candy-related video games.
CandySwipe creator Albert Ransom actually filed an earlier suit against King, which in turn would make the latter's claim a countersuit of sorts. Ransom initially published an open letter to King, pointing the fact that the game maker could have copied him first.
"Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia. I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the Android game, you will still get the message saying ‘...the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla...' I created this game for warm-hearted people like her and to help support my family, wife and two boys 10 and four. "
In an obvious reference to the famous biblical David and Goliath battle, Ransom expressed his indignation with King. He said, "Good for you, you win. I hope you're happy taking the food out of my family's mouth when CandySwipe clearly existed well before Candy Crush Saga."
