King’s public response is “King hasn’t and isn’t trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name.
Here's more from Stoic's statement to RPS: "King have a portfolio of games that makes literally millions of dollars every day," Walker writes. "If Stoic lawyered up, King could (and I stress “could” – we’ve no evidence that they would) bleed them dry of every last cent before anything got anywhere, and it wouldn’t be a blip in King’s accounts."Īnd that leaves Stoic in a quandary, and just as confused as the rest of us. However absurd this trademark fight may be, Stoic simply can't afford to go toe-to-toe without going bankrupt in the process. King can easily bankroll a legal fight against a tiny indie studio. They’ve blocked our trademark and extended the deadline for the opposition twice so that we are unable to have the rights to the name.”Īs Walker also notes, the real problem for Stoic boils down to finances. “We currently have a trademark filed for “The Banner Saga”, which we submitted before filed for the word “Saga”. Stoic even noted, in a statement to RPS, that their trademark application for The Banner Saga predates King's trademark application for the word "saga." So which is it? Is The Banner Saga trying to build on King's brand or content, which King denies, or are they attempting something "deceptively similar" which King claims? It's difficult to see how both can be true.Īs Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker points out, myriad games over the years have included the word "saga" in the title, most of which predate Candy Crush Saga by years. “Applicant’s THE BANNER SAGA mark is confusingly and deceptively similar to Opposer’s previously used SAGA Marks.” What doesn't make sense is how little this statement aligns with King's Notice of Opposition: All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones.” 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.
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. 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. However, like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content. “King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name.
0 kommentar(er)
