Candy Crush dev King has trademarked the word Candy

UPDATE: King has defended its decision to enforce its new "Candy" trademark, and said it would only act where it felt its rights had been infringed upon.

"We have trademarked the word 'Candy' in the EU, as our IP is constantly being infringed and we have to enforce our rights and to protect our players from confusion," a King spokesperson told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry International. "We don't enforce against all uses of Candy - some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask app developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so."

Addressing the example of an app developer which had already been told to change its name, King argued that the game in question had been deliberately designed to create confusion with Candy Crush.

"The particular app in this instance was called 'Candy Casino Slots - Jewels Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land', but its icon in the App Store just says 'Candy Slots', focusing heavily on our trademark. As well as infringing our and other developer's IP, use of keywords like this as an app name is also a clear breach of Apple's terms of use. We believe this App name was a calculated attempt to use other companies' IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings."

ORIGINAL STORY: The developer of casual gaming mega-success Candy Crush has trademarked the word "candy" for use in a vast range of products.

King has successfully applied to use the word in games, games accessories, merchandise, and a vast array other items, including "paper hats for use as clothing".

The application, which Gamasutra reports was originally filed last year, was finally approved on 15th January.

A 30-day window now exists for companies to oppose the trademark.

But already, reports have surfaced of other mobile game developers being served notifications by Apple, on behalf of King, that they will need to change their app's name.

King may have a legitimate axe to grind against blatant clones of its game, but at least one developer has claimed to have been targeted unfairly. The developer of slot machine game "All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land" was one of the companies affected.

Lest you forget, Candy Crush Saga was one of Eurogamer's 2013 Games of the Year.