Morning Folks!!

As my research department discovered the other day, King.com, owners of Candy Crush, the $1 Million dollar a day hottest game in the world, is trying to trademark the word "Candy". Folks think I would be upset. WHY?? If you have a trademark and don't own the .com domain that goes with it, you got ZILCH going forward!!

And of course Candy.com is a full-fledged business that will do $10 Million in sales in 2014. It is no longer a domain purchase. As I have said for years, we soon will see "Priceless". No, not on Candy.com but other domains in which you would have to buy the company to own the domain. Like any real brand starting with Apple.com. No domain will ever be separated from their brand until they sell the company.

So this is an unauthorized blog post since I have nothing to do with the daily operations of Candy.com. I am just a shareholder.

I would predict that as soon as their sales get past the $10 million mark and start heading toward $20- $25 million with the expansion that is coming, that eventually they will be acquired by the proper company based on the relationship they already have and the domain will become priceless and never be on the market ever again.

This deal is right here right now and I see the single biggest domain sale ever because should they have interest, they would throw away the candy store completely and focus on games and their other things they expect to go into.

So these are just my personal thoughts and there is no offer here, but fellas, you obviously understand the power of domain names with King.com. A domain I certainly would have liked to own but was one that I never got. If you are really that serious about trademarking the word "Candy", then it really has much less value and meaning without the domain. That is my professional opinion. It is consistent with everything I have written for 18 years.

There is an interesting moment here and I hope I don't get some folks inside Candy.com upset but...... for reasons I can't disclose publicly, it is VERY time sensitive. What I can say is the expansion that I talked about is ready to happen. Negotiations started in July. Documents may be signed as earlier as Monday. Once that happens, I will have no real influence as to whether the domain will ever be sold. Some heavy hitters are coming on board and they will not be interested in selling and instead of 2 guys making a decision to ride in the sunset a Board of Directors is about to take over and then folks will understand what priceless means. These are facts.

I never saw a $50 million domain rising like a cake in the oven. But I am looking at one right now because there is a growing and expanding company behind Candy.com and each day that domain has more value because the company has more value. And sooner than most think, it will be priceless. And then they will regret not having Candy.com just as I regret not having King.com. Obviously not going to be a trade here.

I think we all can agree that there is a need. Could even have a want. And where there is want, there is desire. Give me 5 minutes with the Founder and once the need is defined as I would, then the want and the desire can't be held back. I think that condition is already present without me saying a word.

Here is the Google search. This is huge news. The candy trademark issue is on every newscast and is being discussed far and wide be legal scholars and talking heads. I am sure candy.com is enjoying the boost in traffic at what is obviously the slow season:

candy trademark

All that said, I think Candy Crush will have many folks filing objections and that of course would probably include Candy.com as I doubt these guys will just sit back and say nothing. And if they can't trademark the word "Candy" then you tell me what then next best thing would be? And if they can trademark candy, how less valuable is that trademark without owning the .com? These are serious and solid business questions and issues and should be viewed as such. Things I have talked about for many years and not there is at least a very live example.

Rick Schwartz

Disclaimer: Candy.com is in no way affilated with Candy Crush, King.com, Saga. However I did see some of their Candy Crush Candy on the candy.com website.