Jumping Droid rejected on Apple AppStore for using Droid

"Jumping Droid" unfortunately didn't make it to the Apple's AppStore. Of course I didn't expect that Apple would easily accept a game with running Droid but I was hoping there was a chance when I found another game called "Super Droid World" and recently "Kill the Droid!".

Actually problems arised at the very beginning. The whole process of becoming an Apple Developer was a real pain. The game was ready to submit on May 11th and I thought it would be quick and straightforward process similar to submitting the same game to the Amazon AppStore. Unfortunately I faced the first obstacle when it came to paying $99 subscription fee. It turned out that there was no online store that would allow making the payment in Ireland. The only way to pay was to send a fax to Apple American number with credit card details (!!!). Like many people around, I don't even have a landline as having cell phone and internet is just enough these days. I know that there are online websites providing fax services, but come on, who wants to send a scan of your credit card details to people you don't know? When I found somebody with a fax machine, it turned out that my Visa Electron wouldn't work with Apple so I used my other standard Visa card from different bank that had actually my second address assigned to it. And I forgot that this address didn't match the address that I had typed when signing up for developer account. So after a week I received another document called Identity Verification Form requesting a copy of my driving licence or passport signed or stamped by a solicitor. When I explained back to Apple support what was the reason for these address discrepancies and that I would love to correct my address on the website, they just sent me that form again. Fortunately I live in a country where English is a first language, but just imagine if you are in a non-English country... such a small mistake may cost you going to a court interpreter to translate this Apple's form to your native language, then going to your solicitor, who can now read and understand what Apple wants and then going back to the court interpreter in order to translate already stamped document back to English so Apple can understand it. Anyway the whole thing took a while but finally I became a proud Apple developer. I'm happy to confirm that if you live in Ireland you can still submit your apps online and you don't have to send CDs with your app burned to Cupertino ;)

Anyway, the reason for rejection is point 8.5 of Apple Review Guidelines, which is: "Use of protected 3rd party material (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content) requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request". As a more detailed explanation I got this: "We found that your app contains features that may infringe on rights owned by Google Inc., which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.".

But Google is very clear about using the Droid robot picture and Droid word in the apps names http://www.android.com/branding.html. They basically say that "Android Robot can be used, reproduced, and modified freely in marketing communications ... proper attribution is required under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.". So what is a proper attribution? Under this link http://code.google.com/policies.html#attribution Google gives an example of what kind of attribution sentence is required when some portion of a page was used in a project "Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.". I have written that sentence on the About screen of the game. Regarding Android official names they say that "Any name with 'Droid' alone may not be used in a name." which is fine, my game is called "Jumping Droid", not just "Droid". So I think there is no issue here, "Jumping Droid" meets all requirements in regards to Google.

I wrote all this above as a response to Apple but the only thing I have got back from them was the week after: "Thank you for your response and attention to the copyright issue. We appreciate your patience as we review your representation.". In the meantime I found there was another game available on the AppStore called "Kill the Droid!" http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kill-the-droid!/id451513461 and I can't see any difference between that game and mine except the fact that the other one is targeted against Droids ;) while mine is neutral. The "Super Droid World" game http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/super-droid-world/id435410094 had already been available before I submitted the "Jumping Droid" for the first time.

It has already been a couple of weeks since the "Jumping Droid" was rejected and I still haven't got answers to my question why was my game rejected and other Droid games not. But rather then just wasting my time and waiting for nothing, the brother of Jumping Droid was born called "Jumping Robot" and he had more luck with Apple's approval process: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jumping-robot/id451002961.