Memory. Not only do you have one, but you’ve probably played any number of card-flipping memory games in your life… possibly on the App Store, where there are over 50 of such games that promise to test the limits of your recollections.
Those games are now under attack, as Apple is sending notices to developers demanding that they remove the word “Memory” from their titles. It’s not Apple’s fault, though: rather, a German company is gunning for them, claiming it owns the trademark for the word in dozens of European, African and South American countries.
The company in question is called Ravensburger, who sell a popular board game which they just call “Memory.”
Ravensburger claims to own the trademark to “Memory” in 42 separate countries. Those countries are: Armenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Equador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.
The United States isn’t one of them, but if you have an app with the word “Memory” in the title, and you sell that app international, Ravensburger wants you to rename your app or get the hell out of the App Store.
Already, one developer has had to pull his title, Preschool Memory Match, from the App Store because he doesn’t have time to update the game and resubmit it. The game should be back with a new title early next year.
Source: Gamasutra
