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Comment by vessenes

5 hours ago

Sort of buried the lede here -- Apple uses the Inkwell name and has a trademark. This is just not going to get approved. Or, to quote Jobs talking to the iPodRip developer "Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal."

9 comments

vessenes

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vegadw  5 hours ago

used. Apple used. It's legally a dead trademark, so Apple is claiming ownership of something they've already abandoned, but enforcing that nobody else can reclaim it, despite being a good name. That's not right, they don't just get to name squat.

  • armada651  5 hours ago

    What's legal doesn't matter, it's their store, if they want to claim they own the word Pear too they can do that.

    I think holding that kind of power over devices people own is problematic, but I seem to be in the minority here.

    • jasonjayr  4 hours ago

      Amusingly, a bunch of series of teen shows used to use "Pear PC" to get around the trademark issue on all their on screen technology...

    • eikenberry  4 hours ago

      +1 .. the problem isn't that Apple is denying their app, the problem is the developer decided to submit it to the Apple store.

  • thaumasiotes  2 hours ago

    Fun fact: this same process is how Vietnam got its name. Their earlier proposal of Nam Viet had fallen out of use, but still couldn't get approval.

etothet  5 hours ago

Perhaps you’re right. Apple's App Store review can be a rough process. Then again, a search of “Inkwell” in the App Store shows plenty of apps that are named “Inkwell”, many of then writing-related.

  • vessenes  5 hours ago

    Oh I didn't say they'd be consistent. But once it's raised, it's going to be really tough.

    • Barbing  2 hours ago

      Agreed. Vanishingly few enforcers have ever said "wait, we let other people do it? Ohhhh go ahead!"

      Much more extreme example, I read a court case where the cops were really annoyed the perp told them they should've been enforcing $muchWorseCrime elsewhere. Judge wasn't a fan either.