A confrontation began between King and the authors of The Banner Saga
The story of the conflict between King and the authors of The Banner Saga has been continued: King does not want to quarrel with Stoic, but the creators of The Banner Saga plan to defend the rights to their IP.
For the third day in a row, heated discussions on King’s plans to patent the words candy and saga have not subsided on the web. Last night this story was continued.
Firstly, after public indignation in connection with King’s appeal to the US Patent Office against The Banner Saga, the British company stated that it was not going to and is not going to demand the renaming of The Banner Saga, because “this game does not earn on the brand or content of the Saga series of games from King.” At the same time, the company’s representatives noted that “King, as a prudent company, needs to take all steps to protect its intellectual property in the future.”
In other words, King has nothing against The Banner Saga, but they continue to bend their line.
In response to this, Stoic Studio made their own statement:
“Two years ago, the three of us at Stoic got together to create an epic Viking game: The Banner Saga. And we made it, and people liked it, so we’re making another one. And we will not make a Viking saga without the word “saga” and we will not allow anyone to say that we cannot make such a game. King assures us that he is not trying to prohibit us from using The Banner Saga name, but at the same time their patent protest has not been withdrawn. And it is a great honor for us that so many people believe that we have the right to our own saga. We just want to make great games.”
At the moment, it is unclear whether this confrontation will go to court, or King and Stoic Studio will privately solve this problem in some way. However, it seems to us that the future of the industry depends on how the case is resolved. If King wins, a wave of registrations of words as trademarks will begin, if Stoic wins, we can hope that everything will remain as before.
Source: http://www.gamezebo.com
About the companies:
