Hi people,
During the development cycle of my first app i had come across some stuff.
Of course there was the hassle of "forget to learn memory management stuff because of self-studying my way into idev" which made me rework my app two times.
Then there was the certificates hassle, followed by - last but not least - the admittance battle
But the one thing i didn't read anything about is the NAMING of your app...
I uploaded my app as "GroupMail" back in January (and posted info about it here:
http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/ip...ly-review.html
But within two days i got an email from a company stating that Group Mail and everything with this text in it (group and mail together all the same) was being protected as a registered trademark.
With the contactperson asking me polite to change this name i Googled on Registering trademarks. i found the name GroupMail and changed the name in iGroupEmail. That did the trick.
Interesting, however, is the answer to the question: Is there a worldwide trademark?
No. However, it is possible to file one application for a group of countries such as:
1. The European Union, covering 15 countries in Europe;
2. The Madrid Protocol, covering several dozen countries; and
3. The Andean Pact, covering several South American countries.
Otherwise, one must seek trademark protection on a country-by-country basis.
My advice is to look for a suitable and trademark-free name in advance.
Save yourself the trouble of renaming or making a campaign 30% less effective because the name has to change...
A couple of sites to check names protected by trademarks:
US:
Trademarks
Madrid Protocol:
Madrid Express (Trademarks) Search
