I’ve had an account with apps with more than 1m users.
Most of the apps where already more than 1 year on google play and i didn’t change anything in them,
Today i woke up and found out google have deleted my account:
REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information.
Some of the apps that were banned are a celebrity quiz that is similar to hundreds of apps that are live on google play so i don’t think this is the reason.
You think google will re open my account if i contact them?
No, and it’s normal they banned you , actually they are removing apps for much less, for example the last app I got suspended was because I used the word ‘Memory’ in the title
Oh, only what can I say is that: when people will stop comparing themselves with others saying this or that is till in Google Play, but my app was suspended. Not everyone will get suspend at the same time. You are definitely violating Google Play policy from beginning and if you think it’s ok only because same apps exists then it’s too bad for you.
Okay. This is crazy trademark policy. I have one app in Amazon German store suspended because of the word “Memory”. It is a reserved word in Germany and someone file a claims. Then, I quickly unpublished the app in Google Play Store to avoid being banned. “Memory” looks like cannot be use in Germany since it is a trademark at there. So, how can we protect ourselves from being banned? Search all the copyright and trademark offices around the world before published? Limit store to US only?
Can the word “Memory” use in app description but not title? I can’t imagine how are we going to avoid 100% of these crazy trademark and reserved word…
Memory is also a trademark in several other European countries, held by Ravensburger. It is fairly easy to google this and get the relevant information. I think at least googling your prospective game title is a minimum before releasing. It is a bit of a minefield though, and the trademark organisations do not help by granting trademarks to single word names.
W.r.t. Memory, it is probably legal to use Memory in a title, as long as it is part of a phrase, and the game or app is sufficiently different from Ravensburger’s Memory board game. The problem is Google (and Apple) will always take the cautious route and simply ban any offending app, even if the use of a trademarked word might be legal. I suppose this is an area where Apple’s approval process is an advantage, as an app should not be allowed in the first place with a trademarked name, whereas Google’s free for all means apps can be removed, sometimes years after release.
I have an app with Memory in title that doesn’t suggest it’s a Memory game (while it really is a Memory game) and it wasn’t suspended or anything in any store, in any country for 3 years now. So in some degree it can be used. I would avoid naming a game “Memory Game”, “Memory HD” and similar simple names.
Great detail, Rhames. Thanks for clarification. This might help any developer before publishing their game.
But what if the game is already published in the market for few years already and then suddenly someone registered the trademark successfully? This scenario could happen in Apple store also, right?
Good question. I suspect the answer varies from country to country. In the U S there is a principle of common use. So the first to use a mark inside the us gets priority. Other countries might have similar rights. The problem is, without the resources of king.com, it’d be difficult to hire a specialist lawyer to fight any ban or cease and desist letter.