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Wait, 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 he
by PakG1 7y ago
Wait, 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.
- duxup 7y agoYeah but if you act differently you might end up entertainment...
- imtringued 7y agoBut we're not in Rome. We're on earth. So the saying goes: "When on earth do as the Chinese do".
- EdwardDiego 7y agoYou don't really need to research Chinese IP law, as they're signed up to the WIPO Madrid system for international trademark filing. https://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/ https://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/ But instead of blaming the dev for missing a filing in China, why the hell is Apple taking down the app worldwide if it only violates IP law in China.
- seppin 7y agoHow quickly would a foreign application for IP project get through a Chinese court? Would it matter in the end if it did?
- EdwardDiego 7y agoAccording to this page I googled, about 9 - 12 months from filing. And not via a court. https://www.ip-coster.com/IPGuides/trademark-china https://www.ip-coster.com/IPGuides/trademark-china
- inflatableDodo 7y ago>Why does the naive entrepreneur get to play the victim here? Now I dunno, this might be a bit of a stretch, but it might perhaps just be because they are in actual fact, quite clearly, the victim here.
- deogeo 7y ago> Why does the naive entrepreneur get to play the victim here? Not that this was the case here, but being naive and a victim go hand in hand - no 'playing' required.
- mthoms 7y agoThey didn't target China at all. They were resigned to the fact that it would be immediately cloned in that market so they never bothered. The details are readily available in the linked thread but the gist of it is that most of the world operates on a "first to use" basis to prove trademark ownership while China uses a "first to file" basis. Apple is tacitly saying that the Chinese system takes precedence. Even in the US. It's absurd.
- PakG1 7y agoRight 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. It does not sound like they were resigned to the fact that it would be immediately cloned. If I am missing something, let me know. I'm going based off of what I read in the Reddit post.
- tom_ 7y ago"not targeting China at all" may be overstating things, but "going so heavy into China" sounds like an exaggeration too. You can be resigned to the fact that your app will be immediately cloned, and yet still think it worthwhile to spend a bit of money on having it localized enough that Chinese customers might find it compelling. I hear there are a lot of people in China. If you can have the job done cost-effectively, no reason not to try to capture at least some of the market. If people will buy clones, maybe they'll buy the original too.
- PakG1 7y agoOh come on, make a quick buck and then take the moral high ground to deal with your ignorance on IP laws when your predicted inevitable outcome happens? :) That's way disingenuous. It makes much more sense for them to have thought IP laws there worked like IP laws at home. In fact, they do in effect say that they thought that in the Reddit post.
- tom_ 7y ago