If you’re into game development then brush up on your property rights. Historically, games have “borrowed” many elements of gameplay from each other — but occasionally they just end up as shameless rip-offs…

Although both having similarities to Bejewelled… The makers of ‘CandySwipe‘ are being sued by King for infringement on their ‘Candy Crush Saga’ game; despite the former being released two years earlier.

CandySwipe creator Albert Ransom points to numerous similarities between his game and Candy Crush Saga – even down to specific icons and images. In fact, he actually sued King first on the accusation they were the ones copying him…

King’s claim is after buying the rights to a game released pre-CandySwipe called ‘Candy Crusher’ of which the developer is hoping gives them the rights to everything related to candy in video games…

So I guess you could say CandySwipe is being held… Ransom. (Sorry, it had to be done.)

In a passionate open letter to King, Albert Ransom wrote:

Dear King,

Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukaemia. 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. Two years after I released CandySwipe, you released Candy Crush Saga on mobile; the app icon, candy pieces, and even the rewarding, ‘Sweet!’ are nearly identical. So much so, that I have hundreds of instances of actual confusion from users who think CandySwipe is Candy Crush Saga, or that CandySwipe is a Candy Crush Saga knock-off. So when you attempted to register your trademark in 2012, I opposed it for ‘likelihood of confusion’ (which is within my legal right) given I filed for my registered trademark back in 2010 (two years before Candy Crush Saga existed). Now, after quietly battling this trademark opposition for a year, I have learned that you now want to cancel my CandySwipe trademark so that I don’t have the right to use my own game’s name. You are able to do this because only within the last month you purchased the rights to a game named Candy Crusher (which is nothing like CandySwipe or even Candy Crush Saga). 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.

I have spent over three years working on this game as an independent app developer. I learned how to code on my own after my mother passed and CandySwipe was my first and most successful game; it’s my livelihood, and you are now attempting to take that away from me. You have taken away the possibility of CandySwipe blossoming into what it has the potential of becoming. I have been quiet, not to exploit the situation, hoping that both sides could agree on a peaceful resolution. However, your move to buy a trademark for the sole purpose of getting away with infringing on the CandySwipe trademark and goodwill just sickens me.

This also contradicts your recent quote by Riccardo in ‘An open letter on intellectual property’ posted on your website which states, “We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large – have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create.”

I myself was only trying to protect my hard work.

I wanted to take this moment to write you this letter so that you know who I am. Because I now know exactly what you are. Congratulations on your success!

Sincerely,
Albert Ransom
President (Founder), Runsome Apps Inc.

King has successfully managed to trademark the use of ‘Candy’ (I’m still allowed to write that, right?)  and doesn’t just apply to video games; but also areas such as clothes and footwear.

“We don’t enforce against all uses of ‘candy’ – some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask app developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so,” King spokesman Martin Bunge-Meyer said.

This month has been torn in controversy over another developer’s indie game ‘Flappy Bird’ and whether it was too similar to other games; causing it to be pulled. So many clones have cropped up that it’s caused Google and Apple to actively block any submissions with ‘Flappy’ in the title.

The situation is similar to the letter which Nimbit sent to Zynga after copying their ‘Tiny Tower’ game – which is shown below.

What do you think of the situation between Candy Crush and CandySwipe? What about copyright laws in general?