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Apple removes game after Chinese company cloned, trademarked, requested takedown
- ikeboy 7y agoI've heard multiple horror stories of this happening with physical product brands. Someone buys their products from a factory in China, sells on e.g. Amazon US with their own brand, trademarked and everything. Then some Chinese entity trademarks it in China. The clincher is that since they have a Chinese trademark, they can put an export block on anything bearing that trademark, and so the US buyer can't ship their goods out of China anymore. Because of this, people are being advised to register in China even if they never plan to sell anything there.
- whenchamenia 7y agoOr produce locally where possible to avoid that altogether. The risk is higher than then higher production costs in many cases. Its not nationalist drivel to support your own area when it is feasible.
- ikeboy 7y agoNo, inefficient production and ignoring comparative advantages is bad regardless of what language you use to play it up.
- _iyig 7y agoIdeally, one factory’s more-efficient production method would result in a larger economic pie that would be fairly distributed amongst everyone. In practice, especially when you consider regional trade barriers and the lack of perfect and instantaneous wealth redistribution, many people care about factors such as, “will my friends and family still have economic opportunity if this factory is offshored?” This concern may at first seem like nationalism or nativism, but through a bit of moral algebra we’ll reveal it as that blessed market motive of rational self-interest. Put simply, factory workers in foreign countries won’t help raise your children, watch over you in times of ill health, or take care of you in old age. In the United States, such aid is also unlikely to come from the anonymous shareholders and C-level executives who’ll reap the main economic benefits of any offshoring.
- floe 7y agoThese incentives aren't enough for any single rational actor to change their behavior. At the national level, sure, there's an argument for protectionism. But, not at the individual level as whenchamenia suggested.
- neuronic 7y agoLocal means worse. The West has terrible production infrastructure when compared to places like Shenzen. It's a serious disadvantage on many fronts.
- ebog 7y agoThat's not entirely true. The US is good at capital intensive or high skilled manufacturing like most other countries aren't. That's why it's viable for a lot of car companies to open plants in the US. It's just that most of the supply chain requires more labor and less capital, which the US economy is not suited towards.
- delfinom 7y agoThe US buyer can ship their goods, they just need to ship it to a warehouse in the US and then apply the branding domestically. But it does suck and blow.
- RickSanchez2600 7y agoChina does not respect US trademarks, but the US respects Chinese trademarks? Someone explain it to me like I was 5, please?
- bdowling 7y agoIt is not a matter of respect. U.S. trademark law applies in the U.S. and Chinese trademark law applies in China. The laws are just different. The U.S. does more to protect a user of a mark who neglects to register. For example, there is a "Burger King" restaurant that used the mark prior to the well-known international chain. That business continues to use the mark for its restaurant and can even exclude the well-known company from a limited territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_(Mattoon,_Illinois) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_(Mattoon,_Illinois... The Chinese system, by contrast, seems very unforgiving to a prior user who neglects to register.
- adinobro 7y agoPart of the reason for this is that the US system uses common law which means that it changes over time based on previous cases. The Chinese system is based more on the German system where courts have less leeway and follow the laws more than interpret the laws. The Chinese civil law is more common worldwide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law
- bdowling 7y agoIt's a bit more complicated than that. For trademark law, U.S. law is a hybrid. Federal law is always codified in a set of statutes, which makes it a bit like a civil law jurisdiction, except that higher court decisions are binding on trial courts. State law is often codified, but sometimes it is based on a common law history of judicial decisions. The particular complexity for U.S. trademark law arises because the federal law did not completely preempt state laws. Federal law applies generally to marks registered with the federal government through the trademark office, but there can also be rights based on state law.
- 7y ago
- RussianCow 7y agoWait, I'm confused. Why did Apple take the game down worldwide instead of only in China? They only "violated" Chinese copyright law, but they're punished for it globally?
- wavefunction 7y agoApple recognized Chinese claims of IP over the rest of the world.
- mattnewton 7y agoNo inside info here, but my guess is this is a nuanced situation that broke Apple’s internal review process. This situation is thoroughly off script, requires a political and legal understanding of multiple countries trademark frameworks, with potential penalties for not complying quickly. They probably just messed up and someone internally will try to bring it back online outside of China now that this is getting wider coverage.
- perennate 7y agoPer [1] my understanding is that they took down the game worldwide, but that the action will only affect Chinese-speaking markets since the English name was not trademarked in China. Perhaps if they had trademarked the Chinese name in the US (assuming this is possible) they could fight this. Or maybe they would have to fight it in every sovereign country, e.g. Taiwan (ROC), Malaysia, etc. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/bs6n3l/apple_removed_my_game_from_the_app_store_because/eokkp52/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/bs6n3l/apple_remov...
- inflatableDodo 7y agoI wonder if there might be any trademark Apple terms that haven't been properly trademarked in China yet? Ponder, ponder...
- phren0logy 7y agoThe game in question is Clicker Heroes (a pretty popular idle/incremental game), and the post is by the CEO of Playsaurus. From the thread: > It looks like we can't challenge it. After reading the comments and doing a bit more research, it appears that China's trademark/IP laws are completely different from any Western countries, and Apple just has to do what they say. >It sucks but that's how it is. If you make a game, unless you have ridiculous resources to spend on registering properly in China in advance, you just have to accept China to be a loss. Someone there will steal it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wbl 7y agoWTO TRIPS and current political environment offer some options.
- Creationer 7y agoYou need to read the details more carefully. Playsaurus messed up: 1. They launched in China without registering a trademark 2. A competitor registered the trademark after 3 months of their launch 3. They continued to sell for 4 years under a name trademarked by another company, making $73,000+ yearly from that one country Now, they complain about it on Reddit, even though China is a 'First to File' company. The fault lies entirely with Playsaurus, nothing illegal occurred here. https://www.trademarknow.com/blog/first-to-file-versus-first-to-use https://www.trademarknow.com/blog/first-to-file-versus-first... This situation could have occurred in many other countries - the difference is probably that the competitor is content to just sell in China, under a Chinese name, whereas products sold anywhere else would need to use the English name. Edit: Apple taking down the game worldwide is unusual though.
- perennate 7y agoThe issue is China's predatory trademark system forced them to abandon the Chinese name of the game worldwide, which affects their sales in other Chinese-speaking markets like the sovereign countries of Taiwan (ROC), Malaysia, etc.
- duxup 7y agoThey took it down worldwide? Or just in China? Worldwide, I have the st00pids.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoIt's mentioned in the first sentence.
- duxup 7y agoSorry
- mgreenleaf 7y agoWorldwide
- perennate 7y agoBut is it worldwide under just the Chinese name "点击英雄" or also the English name "Clicker Heroes"? The only relevant reply I saw was not definitive on this: > We can re-name it in China, yeah. With a ton of effort changing all of the artwork we created with the old name. But renaming "Clicker Heroes" (which we already trademarked) in the U.S. and EU would be senseless Initially I thought it was the latter but now I think it is the former (only the Chinese name affected). Edit: this reply from the reddit thread but not be the game author suggests it is the former as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/bs6n3l/apple_removed_my_game_from_the_app_store_because/eokkp52/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/bs6n3l/apple_remov...
- PakG1 7y agoThis. Everyone's downvoting my comment below, but they're not understanding this. People who say this is not the issue need to explain why.
- perennate 7y agoI read your comment now but I don't see the relation, I'm just wondering whether they are banned by Apple from selling under both the Chinese and English names or just the Chinese name. In regards to your comment below, a Chinese name doesn't indicate that they are targeting China -- there are other Chinese-speaking markets like the sovereign countries of Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. But I agree that they likely were in part targeting sales in China, and that they ought to have trademarked the Chinese name in China (along with other Chinese-speaking markets).
- denverkarma 7y agoThis is the kind of stuff that makes me feel the trade conflict between the US and China is overdue. The world’s two biggest economies operating on such a different standards of IP was bound to lead to conflict eventually.
- xwdv 7y agoIt is very overdue and close to reaching a flashpoint. The markets have been getting slammed recently over trade war rumbles. Not sure how it will all end, but China really needs to fall in line with the RoW and adopt sane standards for intellectual property. This cannot go on.
- seppin 7y agoIt will never happen. What's the worst case scenario, China cuts off its markets completely from western digital products? They already have.
- androidrebel 7y agoThe worst for China is that we block them from our markets. Which Trump is trying to do
- MarkMc 7y agoEven worse for China is if they are blocked from both US and EU markets. Like the US, Europe has found its IP and technology appropriated by China, so with the right strategy Trump might convince EU leaders to also take a hard line against China. Unfortunately Trump's world view doesn't allow for such a strategy.
- makomk 7y agoThe big obstacle to this strategy isn't Trump's world view, it's the structure of the EU itself. They just haven't been able to agree on a hard line against any kind of Chinese trade abuses. This has been a problem since well before Trump was elected.
- nydel 7y agoI use an apple mobile; is there any way* to download the Playsaurus game Clicker Heroes? I know it has, at least at times, been possible to install an app via, say, a web browser like firefox where that app would not appear in-store. I am not sure whether such a thing is possible anymore but would like to support the game and its developer/s. *without rooting or unjailing the device
- morpheuskafka 7y agoYou're talking about sideloading, that requires the game's IPA file and signing with Cydia Impactor (or building it yourself from source in Xcode). Unless you join Apple Dev Program for $99/yr you can only sign five apps for up to seven days each (same if you are developing your own apps).
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago> Unless you join Apple Dev Program for $99/yr you can only sign five apps for up to seven days each (same if you are developing your own apps). That is, unless you use a gray market enterprise certificate, which is probably what the GP is thinking of. It has gotten significantly harder to do this in recent months, particularly after it came out that Facebook was engaging in the practice...
- morpheuskafka 7y agoYes, but that will lead to the eventual revocation of the certificate at an unpredictable time, which will render the app and all of its data inaccessible.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- duxup 7y agoDid the non Chinese have any trademarks? Anywhere?
- Namrog84 7y agoYes. In the US and Europe I believe.
- inflatableDodo 7y agoThey will have had it automatically.
- EduardoBautista 7y agoYou are thinking of copyright. Trademarks are not automatic.
- inflatableDodo 7y ago>'The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) defines a trademark as a "word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination thereof," used to identify and distinguish a company's goods. A service mark is essentially the same thing but pertains to services rather than goods. Your mark (either trademark or service mark) is legally protected through common law once it goes into commercial use, but sometimes it makes sense to register your mark.' https://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/trademark-protection-by-use-or-by-registration.html https://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/trad...
- fabianhjr 7y agoThis is an argument similar to "China is odd for using the metric system; to prove it here is the US using Imperial" > Let’s start with how the U.S. is different from other countries. In the U.S., just using a brand in commerce will grant you some legal rights over the brand. Many jurisdictions, however, are “first-to-file” countries. That means whoever registers a trademark first – regardless of whether they’re using it – is the owner of the mark. For example, both China and Japan are “first-to-file” countries. https://thestartuplawblog.com/trademarks-file-outside-u-s/ https://thestartuplawblog.com/trademarks-file-outside-u-s/
- indigodaddy 7y agoWhy wouldn't Apple do better research before boneheaded actions such as this?
- awakeasleep 7y agoThe law often doesn't follow 'common sense' rules that laymen imagine. You can think of it like a semantic error in your code. The computer/legal system does what it was programmed to do, not 'the right thing'
- techntoke 7y agoWhat law? Aren't they primarily an American company? Does this mean that they will give up customer information to the Chinese government if required by law there?
- derekp7 7y agoRemember where all of Apple's products are manufactured.
- irq 7y agoYes, it does in fact mean that and, yes, Apple has already done that. In fact, Apple’s iCloud infra is state owned and operated in China [1]. 1: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208351 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208351
- threeseed 7y agoJust because a company is American doesn't mean they can flout the laws of a country they are selling products into. Think about it in reverse. Would you accept a Chinese company ignoring US law if they were selling something to US consumers.
- skinnymuch 7y agoBut the app was taken down worldwide. Your example is if the app was only taken down in China, no?
- PakG1 7y agoWait, they targeted China, released in China, made money in China, but didn't register trademarks in China? I'm sorry, when in Rome.... If they were going so heavy into China, they should have researched Chinese trademark law. Why does the naive entrepreneur get to play the victim here? Yeah, China has bad optics, but this situation was avoidable. The buck should always stop with the entrepreneur, no? edit: As I've written below: Right in the reddit post, he writes they were marketing it as 点击英雄 in 2014 on a Chinese website. It does look like they were targeting China. There is nothing on that post to indicate otherwise. If I am missing something, let me know. I'm going based off of what I read in the Reddit post. What is likely happening here is that a peon at Apple is acting as a finite state machine in a faulty process without thinking. Marketing it as 点击英雄 would make that easy. Hopefully, Apple gets this right for the rest of the world and reverses their decision, but I mean... it's marketed as 点击英雄! In China! On a Chinese website!
- duxup 7y agoThe app was taken down worldwide, not in Rome.
- nevir 7y agoWell, also in Rome :P
- PakG1 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_in_Rome,_do_as_the_Romans_do https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_in_Rome,_do_as_the_Romans...
- duxup 7y agoI know the term, I was just extending your use of it.
- inflatableDodo 7y agoI never liked that phrase. Which Romans in particular? Rome was complicated as hell and regularly ruled by unpredictable incestuous madmen. I'd rather not do as the Romans do, whilst in Rome, lest they mistake me for a Roman and I end up dead in some strange political intrigue, possibly featuring a drunken goat.
- sjwright 7y agoThey’ve set the precedent that a Chinese trademark has worldwide effect. This move could come back to bite Apple if a Chinese company ever does the same thing to them directly.
- duxup 7y agoI thought Apple already settled something like that in China.
- partiallypro 7y agoIn the end Apple has the money to fight that, and they'll make more money falling in line with Chinese law, even if it hurts small developers...especially since they draw so much growth from that region. The US is on the back burner.
- EdwardDiego 7y agoWhich wouldn't be upheld by any Paris Convention state. (And China agreed to the Paris Convention in 1984). But yeah, international filing is a lot easier now, China is a member of the Madrid System, so it's relatively streamlined.
- Mirioron 7y agoStill costs several thousand dollars.
- EdwardDiego 7y agoIf he's losing $200 - $300 per day because of this, it'd pay for itself pretty quickly.
- diziet 7y agoAbout 2% of downloads & revenue (out of a total of $2~ million revenue and 6.6~ million downloads) came from China. I wonder if filing for a trademark in the US (where they could prove first use) and leaving the Chinese market would be a way to solve this.
- mattnewton 7y agoThey have a trademark in the EU and US according to the reddit thread. The problem is their app was removed internationally instead of just in China, and they are having trouble appealing it.
- shekhardesigner 7y agoFeels like a lesson to be learned. You invent first - trademark it first as well. I wonder if the original game developer was in watch mode while all these trademarks over EU, US and China was granted.
- terramex 7y agoYou misunderstood, original game developer has trademark registered in USA and EU and still their game was removed form sale in those markets.
- shekhardesigner 7y agoMy bad, @mastazi, If you have trademarks over EU, US - why not start a petition and let community help you bring down Apple to reinstate you?
- delfinom 7y agoBoth Apple and Google rarely reinstate an app, they don't care, they hide behind the corporate machine, they have plenty of other apps to take their cut from.
- 7y ago
- brettnak 7y agoIt seems to me like this is going to come up in the future "everyone who bought an iDevice" vs Apple antitrust lawsuit. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/us/politics/supreme-court-antitrust-apple.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/us/politics/supreme-court...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mensetmanusman 7y agoThis has happened to lots of mediums sized businesses operating in China that didn’t have the resources to fight it. Wups!
- makecheck 7y agoSo this indicates a few troubling things: 1. It is way easier to steal something and resell it convincingly, than it is to prove original ownership convincingly. This tilts the market in favor of thieves, as they need to do none of the investment and still reap maybe half or more of the total potential income. 2. Apple pulling something from a store should affect only a fraction of a normal market; instead, it affects literally everyone. 3. Gatekeepers such as Apple win regardless of who sells an app. If a developer complains and Apple has millions of alternative developers/apps, why would they even listen? The motivation is simply nonexistent. These problems would all be nullified by abolishing the concept of a single gatekeeper store. If you can easily steal something but there is no easy place to publish it to get stolen revenue from “nearly everyone”, the value of the theft is reduced. (Imagine if you had to find a way to propagate your stolen app to 100 stores. Would it be worth it?) If you can convince one storefront to accept your stolen app as legitimate but you still have to convince a bunch of other stores, the value of the theft is again reduced. If each store has a relatively smaller chunk of the total market, none of them would want to become known as that store where crappy apps make it into the list so they would be more motivated to curate a decent catalog.
- skinnymuch 7y agoBut the thief in this case got their app up. So if it’s hard to do that for 100 stores. Why wouldn’t it be the same difficulty for legitimate developers?
- RhodesianHunter 7y agoThere is already a whole other bigger store though.
- comex 7y ago> If you can easily steal something but there is no easy place to publish it to get stolen revenue from “nearly everyone”, the value of the theft is reduced. (Imagine if you had to find a way to propagate your stolen app to 100 stores. Would it be worth it?) The same obstacle would also apply to all legitimate app developers…
- blunte 7y ago
- csyszf 7y agoWhy some Americans all naturally consider the whole world should and will follow US law... And if not, they need to change their law as the US told. Kind of supercilious, isn't it?
- dahfizz 7y agoTo everyone who has an iPhone: not only can Apple decide what you can and can't run on your device, but any random Chinese company now also gets to decide what software you get to run on the device you dramatically overpaid for to "own".
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- noncoml 7y agoWhat’s the alternative you propose?
- Scarbutt 7y agoPush for an open platform like the web, although google will soon have a big grip on it with its chrome domination.
- noncoml 7y agoThere is no money in that.
- dahfizz 7y agoAt least on Android you can install and run any software you want. Google provides an app store but it does not lock you in like apple does.
- jakear 7y agoHas anyone complied a list of security vulnerabilities for iOS vs Android over the years? To my eye, it looks like I see articles about android vulnerabilities much more often (and searching for “android security vulnerability exposes” vs “iPhone (or iOS) security vulnerability exposes” seems to back that up.
- DownGoat 7y ago
- krak12 7y agoBusiness as usual with Chinese, when we are going to stop dealing with them? Is already proved their concentration camp, digital tirany and permanent attack on any other country. Commercial ban now and blacklist all chinese companies before it’s too late.
- everyone 7y agoIn fairness mobile / idle / clicker game is one the dodgiest genres. All your dev peers are gonna be money grubbing philistines. I dont know of any great game-makers striving to make such a game for its artistic merit / innovation or its contribution to the medium.
- MRD85 7y agoThe makers of this game have said how much they despise the money grabbing tactics commonly used. The sequel has a retail price of $40 AUD and doesn't contain ANY pay to win.
- blazespin 7y agoFirst to file is reasonable. Chinese trademark costs like $200 Geez, give it a break. Huge biz screw up, but just release under a different name.
- rmbeard 7y agoUsage doesn't give you the rights to a name you need to trademark it to obtain legal protection. This is business 101. I feel sorry for the company but this is really an elementary error on their part.
- odensc 7y agoThey did trademark it in the US and EU. Then Apple removed it from all countries because someone trademarked it in China - this is obviously Apple's fault, not the business. If they removed it from only China, no one would care.
- Anardo 7y ago#thechinaway
- majia 7y agoSeriously this issue has nothing to do with Chinese IP system. Any trademark troll can register their trademark and send a takedown request to Apple. In this specific case, Apple decides to take down the app because the trademark is registered in a first-to-file juristication. It probably will make the same decision if the patent troll registered the tradmark in most EU countries. Trademark trolling is a big problem. Making this a China specific problem doesn't help to solve it.
- product50 7y agoThe problem is that the Chinese company copied their app, trademarked it and then petitioned Apple to remove the original app. And the general consensus is that it is not surprising a "Chinese" company did this. That is where the challenge is - the trust for Chinese companies is pretty low especially given they do these types of activities.
- majia 7y agoThe Chinese company certainly deserves the blame and shame, but Much criticism focuses on Chinese trademark system. What can we reasonably expect it to do anything here? Should it check with every foreign company when a trademark is filed? Should it intervene and regulate apple’s takedown action? There are plenty of patent trolls and domain squatting all over the world but rarely people blame US patent office or domain name registrar.
- product50 7y agoAt the very least they shouldn't have petitioned for the app to be banned globally given they blatantly copied it. And Apple should have known better. The current situation looks pretty bad on them.
- Iv 7y agoI laughed when someone predicted to me that US would get interested in fixing stupid IP practices once China gets better than them at it. Looks like we are nearing that point.
- zachguo 7y agoThis is just an example of trademark/copyright troll, which is becoming more and more common in China since the IP system there is maturing.
- joelrunyon 7y agoOne thing I haven't seen anyone say is that he should be FINE in the US. He likely has recourse in the US given common law rights - no?
- supergirl 7y agoonly if they have money for lawyers which apparently they don't.
- imtringued 7y agoApple can just block you for any reason. Even if you win the lawsuit and the copycat gets taken down, they won't have to host your app on their store.
- ngcc_hk 7y agostandard chinese play. Someone may check Jordan the basket guy (the chinese one I meant), cookie, ... many funny one. Not sure all real but must be a lot as these kind of news just keep on coming up
- B-Con 7y agoI'm confused as to why the takedown is worldwide. Does China threaten the company if they don't apply Chinese IP law apply outside of the country? Since their IP laws are terribly primitive they clash with the rest of the world, so that seems impossible.
- aflag 7y agoI don't think taking it down worldwide has anything to do with China. It was an Apple decision.
- narnianal 7y agoI don't know why this is discussed on reddit and not in court, tbh.
- polskibus 7y agoRegistering trademarks etc. should be a part of the added value that an app store brings. Don't forget that they take a heavy 30% cut per sale.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mapcars 7y agoBut does someone expect something different from Apple?
- vectorEQ 7y agowhy if u have a huge game going on not trademark it yourself?
- shekhardesigner 7y agoYou are in loss of $200 to $300 a day? if that's just a loss what's your revenue? It must be very good unless I am missing something here. YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN YOUR TRADEMARK first. You invented the game, hard worked and put it out there FIRST. I dont think getting a Trademark would have cost you fortune.
- tempodox 7y agoBeing at the mercy of an external entity without recourse secured by a fair bilateral contract is just no sound basis for a business.
- ga-vu 7y agoI wish everyone would just ban Chinese goods already
- founderling 7y agoIs the "first to file" topic even relevant here? It seems to be a way of handling patents. But this case is about trademarks.
- abdelm 7y agoIt is relevant for trademarks as well. In the US, it's a first to use with regards to trademarks, but China has a first to file trademark system.
- mytherin 7y agoThere is a lot of misinformation about the situation here, mainly because of the misleading title. The game created by the Chinese company is not a clone of the game created by Playsaurus. Here is the game created by Playsaurus: http://www.clickerheroes2.com http://www.clickerheroes2.com Here is the game created by the Chinese company: http://m.7k7k.com/android/11525.html http://m.7k7k.com/android/11525.html The games look nothing alike. The dispute is about the title of the game "Clicker Heroes", specifically the Chinese translation of this title "点击英雄". A Chinese company created a game with this (rather generic) name and filed a trademark for the name. The company was granted the trademark because they were first to file for the trademark and China trademark law works on a first-to-file basis. The same law applies in many countries (including countries in the EU). Playsaurus made a mistake not filing for the trademark in China before and was punished for that mistake. The actual controversy here has nothing to do with Chinese law or the Chinese company. The controversy is that Apple took down the game in all regions despite them only violating the trademark in China.
- verroq 7y agoIf the game wasn't cloned (that is, copied 1 for 1), then title isn't misleading, it's actually a complete lie. Half of the comments here are talking about IP theft, when it just becomes a trademark dispute.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- 33a 7y agoWTF are you talking about? Those games are almost exactly alike, except the clone has worse graphics. Also the search terms for 点击英雄 all point to the game by playasaurus on baidu/bing. It's clearly an outright rip off.
- yorwba 7y agoThis screenshot of 点击英雄 http://n.7k7kimg.cn/m00/6f/37/01b6d018a2f7485ea9de55f4b02bf251.jpg http://n.7k7kimg.cn/m00/6f/37/01b6d018a2f7485ea9de55f4b02bf2... implies a completely different gameplay compared to Clicker Heroes http://www.onrpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Clicker-Heroes-2-10.jpg http://www.onrpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Clicker-Hero... Edit: but the resemblance to Tap Titans is uncanny: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/BfZpbHHc_htTbIla-wzdj1BFtSDZ_h65EykahBfFwEhW22sSGVjV8SB8EqSNRK2SAxk=w720-h440 https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/BfZpbHHc_htTbIla-wzdj1BFtS... It looks like they cloned one game and trademarked it under the name of another.
- supergirl 7y agoI don't understand the outrage. just because it's China? the same thing can happen in any country, especially in the US. some random company can trademark your game name. you don't like it? fight it in court? don't have money for court? too bad. nothing new here. and if now your game infringes an american trademark you can be 100% sure apple will pull the game worldwide.
- Katzenjammer 7y agoChina doesnt respect any trademark and yet want the rest of the world respect their trademarks... oh man... huawei its not the only ones who deserve to be banned worldwide...
- zacurry 7y agoChinese companies are bad, but are American companies any better ? They have done the same with many traditional indian ayurvedic recipes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2003/sep/08/wto.fairtrade3 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2003/sep/08/wto.fair...
- mannykannot 7y agoEven the largest US companies will appropriate IP that isn't nailed down. Cases appear here every few months. In the 19th century, American entrepreneurs took the same attitude to European IP as China now does to America - if anything, IP appropriation was even more blatant than it is now.