Search Ads in the App Store should respect trademarks

Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul) recently posted a screenshot showing a search for "twitter" with results for the official Twitter app being below an ad for an app that allows you to buy followers. He entitled it "Pretty much what I figured would happen."


This is not only an issue for big companies like Twitter, but it is an even bigger issue for small indie developers like my company. We have worked hard to build a brand and user base. Now, with Search Ads, anybody can draft off of our efforts, and pay for their app to be listed above our app in search results. We don't get a dime of that revenue. A company with lots of funding could potentially cut our download rate in half, since most of our downloads are due to personal reocmmendations.


Simply stated, Apple should allow us to submit our trademarks and have those trademarks banished from use by Search Ads.


Do you agree? How do we give feedback to Apple to ask them to have Search Ads respect trademarks?


Steve Kusmer

Abvio

Up vote post of kusmer Down vote post of kusmer
1.3k views
Posted by
kusmer
Reply
Add a Comment

Replies

Hi kusmer,


This is indeed a very serious issue. This is bad for developers and confuse users.

I started a related discussion a few days ago : https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/48276


Simply stated, Apple should allow us to submit our trademarks and have those trademarks banished from use by Search Ads.


I think this should go beyond just banishing the use of trademarked keywords. Indeed, some small indie developers may not afford the trademarking costs.


IMHO :

- keywords should never contain trademarked names from others

- when the user search for a precise app name, the top result should always be the app with the same canonical name (e.g. "Monument Valley", "monument valley" or "Monument valley" should show the genuine "Monument Valley" app as the top result)

- search should be smart enough to understand the context for common words. For instance, if you search for "restaurant", the top result should be an app from the "Food & Drink" category. Unless the user specified "game" in the query or select the game category, the top result should not be a game.

Posted by
Romain
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of Romain Down vote reply of Romain
Add a Comment
This is a big problem for us too. We have the words "TimeDock" trademarked here in New Zealand and the USA, but our competitors Ads show at the top when you search this exact word. So we have to bid for our own name.
Posted by
LeroyStaines
Up vote reply of LeroyStaines Down vote reply of LeroyStaines
Add a Comment