Look, we get it. There are too many “Doodle” games in the App Store. If you look closer, I believe you’re going to find some Doodle Browser or Doodle Twitter in there, too. Since the incredible success of Doodle Jump, many indie developers have tried to follow its path with not-so-clever marketing moves that, indeed, involved using the word “Doodle” next to something else. Like Doodle God. Or Doodle Army. Just take a look in the App Store. Still, I’m a firm believer of the “users decide” philosophy and I think what Doodle Jump developers, Lima Sky, are doing is just wrong.
As reported by TouchArcade, Lima Sky has been contacting Apple lately to explain the situation of “doodle” games and their original creation, Doodle Jump, and convince Apple to send letters to developers for trademark infringement. Once Apple receives a complaint from a developer, they send letters and within 5 days they want a response back. Otherwise, the app gets removed from the App Store. Several developers of “doodle games” have been getting letters:
In a nutshell, Lima Sky has just barely enough legal ammo to lean on Apple to get similar games removed. From there, Apple sends out a letter to the developer of the game in question, and they have five days to respond or else their game gets yanked off the App Store. 148 Apps recently confirmed Lima Sky’s intentions by receiving a form response back from their legal team explaining that they are in fact claiming a trademark on the word “doodle” and are looking to have any games with “doodle” in the title changed (or removed, from the looks of it).
What’s wrong with this alleged copyright issue is that Doodle Jump wasn’t an original game at all but was clearly inspired by PapiJump and second, other games out of the App Store with “doodle” in their title were released in the past. We can only admit that Doodle Jump might have been the first game in the App Store with “doodle” in its title. It sold millions of copies, and then everyone ripped its style off. While I can understand that the Lima Sky are pissed off (heck, I would be), I don’t get the claim of trademark on the English word “doodle”. Just like I don’t get Facebook when they want to trademark the word “face”.
Maybe the copyright system is wrong and broken at its roots, but here we are: indie developers who had success are now going after other indie developers who are using a word in their game titles. Oh, and the developers who created Doodle Jump didn’t come up with the idea at all. Oh, and the developers of “doodle” games most of the times don’t release games similar to Doodle Jump at all, they just share the word “doodle” with it.
Do you see something wrong in this story?
