Candy Crush Saga creator King gets greedy and trademarks the word 'candy' The company now owns the intellectual property for the word without any restrictions with regards to style, font, size or colour, but can only enforce their trademark as it used in relation to video games and clothing. This last point is particularly interesting as it suggests that King might be looking to follow the example of Angry Birds, who capitalised on the success of their own app with an extensive range of merchandise, from board games to t-shirts. Candy Crush Saga was lauded by Apple as the most downloaded free app of 2013, with more than half a billion installs on iOS devices and an estimated revenue of just under $1 million dollars a day. Not bad for a game that's free to play. Candy Crush Saga is reportedly so addictive that it's currently being investigated by the UK Office of Fair Trading as to whether its in-app purchases might be misleading for younger players. With this level of popularity, it's not too surprising that King is already enforcing their trademark. According to a report by Jim Squires of GameZebo the developers have already begun sending out legal notices via Apple, requesting the removal of any iOS game with the word "candy" in the title. Squires spoke to developers Benny Hsu, the creator of an iOS game named All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land, who says he was contacted by Apple to remove his app or prove that his game does not infringe upon King's trademark. Hsu contacted King about the takedown notice, expecting an apology, but instead received the following reply: "Your use of CANDY SLOTS in your app icon uses our CANDY trade mark exactly, for identical goods, which amounts to trade mark infringement and is likely to lead to consumer confusion and damage to our brand. "The addition of only the descriptive term "SLOTS" does nothing to lessen the likelihood of confusion." Developers have not been too happy about the news, especially given that Candy Crush Saga is itself essentially a finessed version of the decade-old game Bejeweled. However, with the game producing so much money for its developers - and for Apple - it's likely that the "candy" trademark will be enforced enthusiastically.