In one of those “WTF?” moments you see in the App Store from time to time, Apple is reportedly telling developers of certain game titles to change the names of their apps, or risk removal from the App Store.
Apple is reportedly warning developers of iOS games with the word “memory” in the title that unless they change their app’s name, it will be removed from the Apple Store.
The notices are being sent at the behest of Ravensburger, a German game maker that sells a popular series of board games under the brand “Memory” and claims to hold the trademark for the word “memory” in game titles in some 42 countries, according to a report in Gamasutra.
Darren Murtha, who developed the popular game, Preschool Memory Match, said he was too busy to come up with a new name, and had opted to remove the app from all 42 countries. “We plan on changing the name in those countries and uploading a new version early next year,” said Murtha.
The U.S. App Store lists numerous games with the word “memory” in their titles. Ravensburger does not hold the trademark in the United States.
Ravensburger claims its trademark applies in the following countries: Armenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
