King.com, the company which owns intellectual property rights over Candy Crush, was recently embroiled in a copyright infringement suit against the Apeejay Surendra Group, a business conglomerate in India.
King.com (which was represented by law firm Khaitan & Co.) had filed a copyright infringement suit against Apeejay Surendra Group after King discovered that the latter had used the images of King’s Candy Crush game; the images had been used in online advertisements for a live music gig to be held at Apeejay Group-managed Park Hotel at Vishakhapatnam. It was later learnt that Park Hotel was not directly infringing the copyright since it merely served as a location for the event; the event was being organized by Rowthu Projects, a Hyderabad-based company, and was subsequently cancelled.
The Bombay HC passed an ex-parte order on 12th June, 2014 recognizing that King has intellectual property rights to the game Candy Crush and the Court restrained Apeejay Surendra Group from using the images of Candy Crush.
‘Candy Crush Saga’ is the most popular game on smartphones and tablets and it is no wonder that there are many companies which are infringing its intellectual property rights by using images from the game.
King decided to put an end to the suit by entering into consent terms with Apeejay, which state that the Apeejay Group recognizes that Candy Crush marks are well-known trademarks of King.com. King also sent cease-and-desist notices to Rowthu and certain other infringing websites.
Devika, Thanks for this post. Do you happen to have a copy of the IA filed in this case and/or copy of decision for the ex-parte injunction?
I am sorry. I do not have a copy of the decision or the interim application.