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Apple Orders Memory Game Developers To Stop Using 'Memory' In Names
An anonymous reader writes with this bit of trademark absurdity from geek.com: "Ravensburger is a German gaming company that specializes in jigsaw puzzles, but has also expanded into other areas such as children's books and games. The company owns the trademark to a board game called 'Memory' and has demanded Apple stop offering apps that have the word 'memory' in their title or as a keyword associated with an app. It may seem ludicrous such a common word can be trademarked, but apparently this is a valid claim as Apple is now serving notices to app developers. The choice an infringing app developer has is to either rename their app or remove it from the App Store."
The Memory Game
That classic game of remembering is back in this awesome new iPhone app!
Apple: Please remove 'memory' from the title of your game or we will remove your game for you!
The Memorie Game
The Anglo-Normans are challenging your ability to remember in this awesome new iPhone app!
Apple: Don't be a smartass, you know what we mean. Please remove 'memorie' from the title of your game or we will remove your game for you!
The Memoria Game
Which cards had Marcus Aurelius beneath them and which cards had Marcus Annius Verus under them?! This classic challenging Latin game of remembering cards is in this awesome new iPhone app!
Apple: Goddamnit. Okay, no Latin root words of Memoria, okay? You'll be sued, we'll be sued, they own everything related to mem- and as preemptive warning, no 'mnemonic' shit either, okay? It's all owned by someone else!
The Apple Can Go Fuck Itself Game
Which company is making Apple its Intellectual Property bitch today? Try to find out in this classic game of "wait, what card was that again?"
Apple: Approved.
My work here is dung.
Actually, this is about them operating a walled garden! The developer doesn't even get to decide whether to challenge the claim in court. He complies or gets kicked out (with that app).
Or instead of calling it "Memory", call it "Concentration Camp". Defeat the detainment camp guards at a game of Concentration to earn your freedom.
Does this apply to all apps or just games? If it's just games then the claim may be indeed be legitimate (or not), but if it's all apps then it's certainly a case of overreaching by the trademark holder (or else an overreaction by Apple).
The most ridiculous element is the ban on the use of "memory" as a keyword. Trademark law was never intended to forbid others from naming competitors' products or from using trademarked words in their descriptive sense ("this game will enhance your memory and give you super-strength!").
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Apple now has to comply with all IP notices as they are the champions of the game. Soon they will discover that is not possible.
This exact same copyright claim ...
No copyright claim is being made. This is about a trademark.
Copyrights, trademarks, and patents are three different things . How can we ever expect politicians to fix our IP system, when even many geeks seem incapable of understanding even the absolute basics?
Because Google hasn't done something similar? They've removed apps for trademark and copyright claims. But, hey, let's ignore that because we are Google fans.
Ok. And that stops me from installing those apps on Android... how, exactly?
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
A board game named 'Memory' is a specific piece of IP.
Which means, no one but the group that owns the rights to the IP of aforementioned board game is allowed, legally, to create a memory based board game and name it 'Memory.'
It does not mean that group owns all instances of the word memory.
It does not mean that group owns all instances of memory based board games.
This is simple, basic stuff.
WTF, Apple Legal? You're good enough at what you do to get a judgement against one of your competitors/suppliers for using goddamn rounded corners, but not good enough to point out something that's obvious to most 4th graders?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
As an affected developer (actually from 3 years ago), I can tell you that it is a worldwide removal.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Due process does not apply here. Due process is a requirement on the State to respect the accuser's rights. Apple is not bound by due process.
Come on, Apple. This claim is bullshit. Stand up for the developers who make your App Store and ecosystem a success.
Apple just doesn't have the cash to fight a small boardgame company from Germany.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Nope.
You don't need to root an Android in order to side load apps.
You can also install alternate app stores.
It's that whole "open systems" thing.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Came here to say this too. Check "Allow Unknown Sources" in Settings, open .apk, install app. Perfectly allowable within the default Android setup, and yes, this is the setup that 95% of carriers use. (I've heard of some carriers taking away the Unknown Sources checkbox, but to my knowledge it's very uncommon.)
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
A C&D is not a court order. I'm not obliged to comply. If I made, for example, a memory checker system tool for iOS and Ravensburger sent me a C&D I could tell them to go screw as they would have no case. Apple, on the other hand, doesn't give a fuck as to the threat's credibility and is only thinking about risk management... so there goes my app, or it gets renamed to something useless nobody will ever find.