Candy Crush developer trademarks 'candy'

The British video game maker behind Candy Crush Saga has defended its decision to trademark the word "Candy".

King made the move last year in the European Union and has filed for a similar trademark in the US to try to stop rivals cashing in on Candy Crush's success.

Chief executive and co-founder Riccardo Zacconi insisted the firm is not trying to control the global use of "candy".

He said on the King website that having a trademark doesn't allow the company to do that anyway.

Candy Crush records 700 million sessions a day and racks up estimated daily sales of US$850,000.

- AAP