King chief executive addresses ‘Candy’ trademark, The Banner Saga, and cloning games

King has spoken, and it’s very sorry about cloning that one game.

Riccardo Zacconi, the chief executive officer of King.com, the social-gaming publisher responsible for popular titles like Candy Crush Saga, has written an open letter that explains a number of the company’s recent legal moves. Last week, King made headlines for its attempts to register trademarks for “Candy” and “Saga” in an effort to protect its properties from copycats. Zacconi’s letter explained why it is trying to lock down the rights to those common dictionary words while simultaneously apologizing for releasing a clone of another game in the past.