Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#2Have you had a lawyer send the app developer a cease and desist? Have you contacted a lawyer?
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#3[deleted]
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#4"On August 22nd, 2013..."
"We were under the impression that Apple would protect us from being in a situation like this. "
Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly.
What if the fraudster complained about you and Apple acted too quickly and tossed your app? I mean sure your app was there first but in lots of cases the service exists before any app and you can imagine someone come in and puts out an app for foo.com before they put out the official one.
While your case is more cut and dried than most a big corporation is not going to have a different procedure for every precious snowflake. I do hope the book is eventually thrown at this creep though!
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#5Since it sounds like they legally trademarked their app's name and brand then it's best to get an attorney involved and not wait around for Apple.
Competition and copycats exist - users have an appetite for new stuff and quality apps. Apps can be disposable - the average user has something like 64 apps on their device.
So the trick now is to make the app far better than the copycats and to get it back up on the charts.
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#6It strikes me as dangerous that developers seem to think that Apple (or Google) have a role in resolving disputes with 3rd parties. It seems odd to me that your attorney is focusing on Apple. I did a quick trademark search at the USPTO and at WIPO and I see no applications or registrations--that's a basic tool with which you can use to lever 3rd parties, including Apple.
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#7I've been saying this for a while: http://benguild.com/post/14531541446/google-is-the-only-thin...
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#8"On August 22nd, 2013..." "We were under the impression that Apple would protect us from being in a situation like this. " Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly. What if the fraudster complained about you and Apple acted too quickly and tossed your app? I mean sure your app was there first but in lots…
But surely Apple does a search of the App store for other products with the same name, as part of the submission process ? Another app with almost identical name and same icon from a different developer, red flag no ?
How would the fraudster complain about a stolen app if the allegedly stolen app had been on the app store for a considerable time before the fraudster's app was submitted ?
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#9> The next day we finally received a response which indicated that Apple had no intention of helping us with this situation. They asked that we communicate with the developer and keep them apprised of our progress.
INAL, but doesn't the DMCA apply here? They took content (images, etc...) from your app and attempted to distribute / sell it as their original work. If Apple's response is not an immediate takedown of the accused app, haven't they violated the safe harbor provisions?
Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store
#10"On August 22nd, 2013..." "We were under the impression that Apple would protect us from being in a situation like this. " Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly. What if the fraudster complained about you and Apple acted too quickly and tossed your app? I mean sure your app was there first but in lots…
> Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly.
Well, it would certainly be a good start if they would use their lengthy review process to actually look at the apps. Their employees probably are too occupied judging what is morally appropriate for an adult Apple user to look at.