Lima Sky bringing down the hammer.. [update: Lima Sky responds, withdraws the notice]

Apple is not in the wrong here. They simply don't want to get in the middle of law-related issues. This happens all the time.

 

One might even say that they became a "headcase"!

<rimshot/>

 

cheers to LimaSky if they have truly called off their dogs and aren't going to "force every doodle-game to go under the microscope unfairly." Not sure if this is a reactionary statement (how can it not be?)

I will agree from their POV that it is critical that they police and protect their property as it makes sense to do so, especially considering they have a very important app still high on the charts after all of this time (regardless of whether you like the game or not, no one can doubt its' relevance to the mobile gaming community and it's culture)

Unfortunately the way this all has played out has been sloppy considering all the larger parties involved, and exposes a whole slew of problems with the way everything is handled (from the journalistic side of things, to the way trademark law works in relation to videogaming, to the way Apple will force a ban at seemingly any request/at the drop of a hat).

It's probably opened up a nice can of worms either way, but we can expect more of this stuff to happen as mobile gaming moves from a small indie playground to another Big Business and all that that involves.

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Having heard both sides of the story it's hard to be too upset at Igor. It was definitely an overreach and I think the notices sent to Apple by him were premature and caused unnecessary stress to anyone who had a "Doodle" game on the App Store, but at the very least this isn't a Tim Langdell-eseque trademark trolling, which is a relief.

 

they recalled the legal threat headcaseGames?

 

from here

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Their response explains a lot and I'm more than satisfied with it. Just wish they had responded a bit sooner so all this mis-understanding could have been avoided.

 

So would this mean Apple can remove games not even similar to Doodle Jump such as games like Doodle God?

 

agreed it was a bad idea and I don't know what they could have been expecting. I think they might have simply got in over their head, which admittedly would probably have happened to many folks from a smaller company suddenly dealing on a much larger scale. This isn't to absolve them of guilt, but if they are really serious about withdrawing their notice (even if it is a "we got caught" move) and following up accordingly, then it goes to show that their character isn't just "out for blood/money." Judge them on whatever happens in the fallout from all of this.

The lawyer angle is an interesting possibility but we will never know. There are many lessons (and warnings) to take away from all of this, like I said we'll likely see bigger/messier things of a similar nature (involving different parties) in the future as mobile gaming becomes dramatically bigger and bigger business. It's happened at a lightning pace, and (as has happened in the console market) a lot of crazy events occur in the wake of that.

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I don't doubt Igor is a nice guy but I didn't particularly like his lawyer. I'm not totally resting easy at this point that this is all over. The trademark on Doodle is still pending and they made Bryan look like the aggressor. Didn't they try to stop the Doodle Hockey Trademark first. If I try to get Doodle Army trademarked would they intervine? Well I'm going to let this dead dog lie for now and hope it dosen't turn into a Zombie.

 

Hey, I know how you feel. Not that I have an app on the appstore named "doodle anything" but, I am equally angry at LimaSky. How couldn't you be? But what I want to point out is that if worse came to worse, and Lima Sky proceeded with this and actually legally trademarked "doodle", then you could name urs "dooodle" right?

 

I'm glad to hear that Lima Sky isn't the new Tim Langdell of iOS gaming. Although I do think it was a mistake for them not to respond to this earlier. Sounds like the lawyer was a d-bag, not Igor.

As Napolean said,"L'adace, l'adace, toujours l'adace."

 

We must be reading different responses. The only reason they're backpedaling now it's because it blew up in their face. They never expected the story to catch on so fast (other big publishers have been doing the same for a while with impunity).

Also it's not like they haven't been doing this for a while either:

http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/64871.aspx

They were just forced to recant given the extremely bad PR and pressure from everyone.

I fail to see how you can be satisfied with that, but I guess to each his own. Unfortunately my opinion of them didn't change much after reading it.

They were expecting that it would be business as usual. The small devs would comply out of fear of the cost of litigation and that no one would find out/care.

How could they have expected that it would blow up in their face like this? It's not like their are the first to employ these tactics (and won't be the last).

 

Seriously Lima Sky. You act like Bryan Duke is some kind of monster who wants to ruin your success, and you then do the exact same thing to both him and 700+ other devs.

 

I want the doodle army man to shoot doodle jump doodle. and the stupid vulture.

 

That was what it was looking like, but it looks like that might not be the case anymore. Hopefully

 

I lol'd.

 

If we don't have to change the name of our game (Doodle Grub), we will have to make another picture with all Doodle Games having a drink! I hope so.