The King Games Lawsuit

[Rexcasual]

I just learned of this and to suggest that I'm appalled by King Games and their lawsuit against the Devs over the use of the word 'saga' would be an understatement. I am copying an email I sent to King Games earlier this morning.

* * *

Dear King Management Team,

Thank you for reaffirming my contention that corporate greed knows no bounds. A short history lesson might be in order: the words 'candy' and 'saga' have been around for a long time. You didn't invent them and you have no right to claim them as your own. I am appalled by your brazen audacity and your attempts to pick out words from MY language and copyright them for YOUR exclusive use. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Your corporate policy of buying up the English Language is beneath contempt. I am a gamer. I will never spend a penny on a King game. Good luck with your lawsuits. I can't wait to read that you've gone out of business.

Sincerely,
Offended in California

(p.s.: King employees with an 'ethic'; get out now while it's still intact!)

* * *

In closing, at the risk of ranting, I believe King's legal actions constitute an assault not only on my personal liberties, but they are an affront to Language everywhere. If you share my disdain for King's corporate policies, feel free to let them know at the Link provided. Thank you.

http://about.king.com/about/contact

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by Rexcasual:

I just learned of this and to suggest that I'm appalled by King Games and their lawsuit against the Devs over the use of the word 'saga' would be an understatement. I am copying an email I sent to King Games earlier this morning.

* * *

Dear King Management Team,

Thank you for reaffirming my contention that corporate greed knows no bounds. A short history lesson might be in order: the words 'candy' and 'saga' have been around for a long time. You didn't invent them and you have no right to claim them as your own. I am appalled by your brazen audacity and your attempts to pick out words from MY language and copyright them for YOUR exclusive use. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Your corporate policy of buying up the English Language is beneath contempt. I am a gamer. I will never spend a penny on a King game. Good luck with your lawsuits. I can't wait to read that you've gone out of business.

Sincerely,
Offended in California

(p.s.: King employees with an 'ethic'; get out now while it's still intact!)

* * *

In closing, at the risk of ranting, I believe King's legal actions constitute an assault not only on my personal liberties, but they are an affront to Language everywhere. If you share my disdain for King's corporate policies, feel free to let them know at the Link provided. Thank you.

http://about.king.com/about/contact

It's a trademark dispute, not copyright.

[Rexcasual]

I'm aware of the difference, but it still amounts to the same thing. An existing word should not be subject to trademark or copyright.

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by Rexcasual:

I'm aware of the difference, but it still amounts to the same thing. An existing word should not be subject to trademark or copyright.

If you are aware of the difference then why use them to mean the same thing?

What King is doing isn't unusual, they want to prevent games too similar to theirs to use words like "candy" or "saga", if they don't do this then they lose IP protection. That is fair and right, even if they only produce crap games.

What isn't right is that their legal team is going about this in a gung-ho way, they clearly did not bother to check if Banner Saga is at all similar to any King.com's games, "hey they are both games right? They they must be the exact same thing!"

[Rexcasual]

Originally posted by Fork_Q:

Originally posted by Rexcasual:

What King is doing isn't unusual, they want to prevent games too similar to theirs to use words like "candy" or "saga", if they don't do this then they lose IP protection. That is fair and right, even if they only produce crap games.

I agree. Companies should be able to protect thier IPs. But IP protection shouldn't be defined by single comman words plucked from the dictionary. The notion that King now has exclusive rights to and use of the words 'candy' and 'saga' in reference to video game titles or anything else is outrageous.

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by Rexcasual:

I agree. Companies should be able to protect thier IPs. But IP protection shouldn't be defined by single comman words plucked from the dictionary. The notion that King now has exclusive rights to and use of the words 'candy' and 'saga' in reference to video game titles or anything else is outrageous.

We would have to define what is a "common" and "uncommon" word.

If a sleazy game company wanted a free ride on the Banner Saga games, and come up with a somewhat similar looking game and called "Banner Sagas 2FarFromValhalla", and sell it on Steam - we would be up in arms about it.

If King they did intend to keep the trademark "candy" (they've dropped that now) the idea is that they restrict usage of the word to similar games, which is right - if I saw a puzzle game similar to Candy Crush on Android or IOS, and they called it Kandy Krush, that would be obvious deception. But of course, Banner Saga is nothing like what King could produce themselves.

[Wombat]

♥♥♥♥ smart people thread ABORT ABORT BIG WORDS HELP FIRE COUNTERMESURES INDUBITULY away!

[tenshinoshin]

Just because King games is filing a suit, doesn't mean they'll win. Chances are they want a settlement out of court, but more than likely if this actually made it to trial, the judge would throw it out, or not find in King Games' favor. You are right, the idea that they have the right to sue over use of the word "saga" alone is ridiculous.

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by tenshinoshin:

Just because King games is filing a suit, doesn't mean they'll win. Chances are they want a settlement out of court, but more than likely if this actually made it to trial, the judge would throw it out, or not find in King Games' favor. You are right, the idea that they have the right to sue over use of the word "saga" alone is ridiculous.

I am not a lawyer, but from what I read the most likely outcome is a joint useage of the word "Saga".

[tenshinoshin]

Originally posted by Fork_Q:

I am not a lawyer, but from what I read the most likely outcome is a joint useage of the word "Saga".

Good to hear.

[Battle_Chunk]

Originally posted by Fork_Q:

Originally posted by tenshinoshin:

Just because King games is filing a suit, doesn't mean they'll win. Chances are they want a settlement out of court, but more than likely if this actually made it to trial, the judge would throw it out, or not find in King Games' favor. You are right, the idea that they have the right to sue over use of the word "saga" alone is ridiculous.

I am not a lawyer, but from what I read the most likely outcome is a joint useage of the word "Saga".

I'm not a doctor, but King.com makes me sick.

I will try no to sue them over this, as my legal action would match theirs in absurdity.

[ZeroEffekt]

Um. if I recall correctly, Stoic filed for TM of 'The Banner Saga' _before_ King came along and demanded that nobody could use Saga. As we all know, all of their saga games include broken chess-style turn-swap combat involving humans, varl and dredge.
So it's easy to predict King getting total domination over a singular word that's ambiguously applicable to many games (even games that aren't _actually_ sagas in the sense of the word's literal definition of being an epic viking story).

Semantics. And sarcasm.

[Trikky]

King games dropped the filing for the trademark of the work Saga, so I'm assuming the lawsuit is null and void as well.

[tenshinoshin]

Aren't they now forbaying anyone from using the word "Candy?" Talk about ridiculous.