I received a Cease and Desist letter for one of my iPhone apps due to a trademark infringement and was asked to remove the app from the App Store. The app has been removed, but are there any other steps I should take to notify them of this? Do I need to respond to their letter? Also, would it be fine for me to resubmit my app after changing the words that were marked as trademark infringement? Thanks
Nothing is stopping you from replying that the app has been remove until you can change the wording (if that make you more confortable). Yes, you can re-submit your App if you did removed the problematic wording, why couldn't you? PS: Stop swetting, you learnt you lesson for now. You won't go to jail because you did receive a Cease and Desist letter.
Cease and desist letters can be made to look very threatening but they have no legal authority, even when issued by lawyers or solicitors. It's just a very professional way of saying, "hey, cut it out!" — but that doesn't make the issuer either correct or incorrect in asking you to stop. Not saying you should ignore it if you do agree you've possibly done something to infringe another's rights, of course. But I do think a lot of people find them scarier documents than what they actually are. So yes, definitely nothing stopping you from resubmitting your app if you've changed the areas where you think you've infringed their copyrights, and you can either reply or ignore the letter. There's no requirement to reply, but it might be nice to just send a short email saying you've amended the app at their request.
Assuming they had a valid reason to send the Cease and Desist letter, I would send a polite reply saying sorry for accidentally infringing your IP, I have removed the app from sale until the offending material is removed. It is the right thing to do, plus it is a good paper trail if the issue is ever escalated, and may mean they are less likely to take any further action.
Ok, I have to chime in here: just change the game name in an update and put it back in the store. That is a fully legal and if anything polite response to a C&D letter in this case. I have been in this exact situation. I made a scifi tile game similar to Carcassonne and named it a little too cleverly: Starcassonne. I had beat their official app to market by 9 months. They demanded via Apple that I take my game down. But you know what? They don't have any power beyond defending their trademark. I took the game down until Apple approved an update that renamed it Xeno Sola, then I put it back on sale. There has been no issue since.
Ok, thanks for the advice everyone. It sounds like the general consensus is to take out the trademark infringing material and then resubmit it. I assume this is OK even if they requested I remove it, right? Also, can I update the app with only 1 change (the name), or will Apple frown upon this? The problem is that I think an update is the only time you're allowed to change the game's name, and I don't have anything to update to the game except the name.
You're that "Angry Birdz" guy, right? I don't think it would be a problem to change the name and republish it. Just make sure you give support to people who bought it before and you'll mantain your respect with the users!
Sounds pretty scary! But I bet you can succeed just as well with your own original ideas and branding. Good luck!
dont worry You just got a wrist slap nothing to worry about. We all make mistakes in what we do , just learn from it. Also check to see if the name of your game or app has been already taken . Sometimes its just an honest mistake and nothing more than that.
I've gotten plenty of c&d letters, i almost always reply to them saying "stfu", especially when they ask for compensation from the sales that we've already made.
