What they are saying in the emails (I have been on the receiving end) is that : They want devs to remove the word Doodle from the title because it's too similar to Doodle Jump, and could cause "Customer confusion" as to the source of a game/app. They also state that they DO have an application pending for the term "Doodle". (Which we know has been refused in the past).
I just read the article from Pocket Gamer pffff... he said they're not claiming the word "doodle" as generic, which is utterly a lie, look at their tm submission and their current action are saying otherwise. Either Igor is a liar (double speak), or he doesn't know what the lawyer he hire are doing in his back.
This is black and white either you are claiming doodle as a trademark or you are not. Looks like Igor is back peddling now. Not good. This whole thing might be as simple as a greedy trademark lawyer pushing to make some big legal fees.
Mmmm, having spoken to igor at GDC he genuinley seems a decent bloke, I recon he probarbally initially spoke to a lawyer about the games that genuinley are infringing on his trademarks (the "Doodle Jumper" named games with similar logos and stuff that actually do cause consumer confusion) and the lawyer decided to spread the "net of games which could be infringing" quite a bit too wide... Perhaps a lapse in judgment, but he's cleared everything up in his response, so wouldn't worry too much. Having said that it very much depends on the way in which they approached developers... I think a personal e-mail is fair enough in order to quickly raise conscerns providing you dont open the conversation by threatening legal action and trying to use scare tactics rather than having a mature discussion...
Who is this mythical greedy lawyer you're all referring to? Unless Acceleroto is blatantly lying (which I doubt) it was Igor himself who contacted him (and very politely) asked him to remove Doodle from "Doodle Hockey" (that has little to do with jumping). Why all these elaborate scenarios where he was duped by some shady lawyer into bullying small indies, when the truth seems so much simpler?
