Benny Hsu is one such developer, he was asked to comply because his app is called All Candy Casino Slots, though Hsu argues that its not similar to any of King’s intellectual properties apart from the usage of the word. He contacted King’s intellectual property paralegal, and was told that “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 paralegal also argues that the additional of the descriptive term “SLOTS” does not lessen the likelihood of confusion.
Even though the U.S. Trademark Office agrees that King has a claim to this suggestive trademark, its not like King can go against candy companies, they don’t use the word as a trademark, they simply use it to describe their product. Though when it comes to videogames, and other items that King believes it has a claim to with regards to the word “candy,” its not like someone can’t claim they came up with it on their own. Suggestive trademarks might be protectable, but they can certainly be disputed by someone willing to engage in a long and arduous legal matter. Unfortunately, for a lot of indie developers like Hsu, hiring an intellectual property lawyer to go down this road is next to impossible because of the costs involved.