How to report an app that copies yours on the App Store or Google Play

What counts as copying

Plenty of apps do similar things legitimately. A complaint is strongest when the other app copies something you own:

• Your app's name, or one confusingly close to it, especially if you've registered it as a trade mark.
• Your icon, screenshots, marketing captions or description text, which are protected by copyright.
• Your name used in their title, subtitle or keywords to pick up your searches.

Gather evidence

Capture both listings with dates: store links, screenshots of the name, icon, screenshots and description, and anything showing your app came first (release date, earlier versions, your website). A side-by-side image of the copied parts makes the complaint quick to understand.

Reporting on the App Store

Apple handles disputes about apps through its App Store Content Dispute process. You identify yourself as the rights holder, the app you're disputing, and the rights involved. Apple shares the complaint with the developer and encourages you to resolve it directly, and may take action on the listing.

Reporting on Google Play

Google takes intellectual property complaints about Play apps through its legal complaint forms, with separate routes for copyright and trade mark issues. As with Apple, you'll describe the rights, the infringing app and what's copied, and Google may notify the developer and remove or restrict the app.

Tips that help complaints succeed

• Be specific: point to the exact text, screenshots or name that's copied.
• Stick to facts and keep it calm; the other developer will usually read it.
• Register your app name as a trade mark in class 9 (software) and any service classes you trade in.
• Keep copies of everything you send and any reply.

Write a complaint that gets acted on

Store review teams read a lot of complaints, so make yours quick to verify. Open with who you are and what you own: your app, its store link, the date it launched, and any trade mark registration number. Then list exactly what's copied, one point per line, each with a screenshot reference. Finish with what you're asking for, such as removing the listing or removing your name and copied material from it.

Avoid general accusations about the other developer, and don't stretch your claim to features or ideas you can't own. A narrow, well-evidenced complaint is far more likely to succeed than a broad one.

If the store doesn't act

• Reply with any extra evidence the store asked for, keeping to the same facts.
• Contact the developer directly with a short cease and desist.
• Register your app name as a trade mark if you haven't, then complain again citing the registration.
• For valuable apps or repeat copying, take advice from an IP solicitor or trade mark attorney.

How Infringement Ninja helps

Infringement Ninja searches the App Store and Google Play for apps with your name, apps that use it to steal your searches, and clones under a new name. Add your own app's store link and it compares lookalikes' icons, screenshots and descriptions with yours, then drafts the store complaint with the evidence.