Legal - Intellectual Property

Sorry about my English,



I developed an APP for a city (requested by it), and I need to publish using my personal account in the APP Store and when I submit the APP, APPLE returns me the following message:


Guideline 5.2.1 - Legal - Intellectual Property



The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name "***" in the app or its metadata, as required by Guideline 5.2.1 of the App Store Review Guidelines.


Next Steps


Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the *** name. If you have developed this app on behalf of a client, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account. If your client does not yet have an Apple Developer account, they can enroll in the Apple Developer Programthrough the Apple Developer website.


To request an update to the company name or entity type associated with this Apple Developer Program account, the Team Agent will need to contact Apple Developer Support to request an update to the company name. On the Contact Us page, select "Membership and Account," then "Organization Name Change" to make this request.


Note that submitting documentation showing permission to publish this app on behalf of the content owner or institution will not resolve this issue. This app must be submitted under the content owner’s own Apple Developer account.


To request a fee waiver for nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, or U.S.-based government entities, follow the steps outlined on the Apple Developer Program Membership Fee Waivers page.


How can I solve this problem?

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The Ninja
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Thanks for showing Apple's complete response.


Apple is saying, quite clearly, that they want the app submitted by the 'content owner' for which the app was developed not by the developer that was hired by the 'content owner' to develop the app. Specifically, Apple wrote:


"Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the *** name.....Note that submitting documentation showing permission to publish this app on behalf of the content owner or institution will not resolve this issue. This app must be submitted under the content owner’s own Apple Developer account."


You therefore have three options (actually only the 1st makes sense):

1) Do what Apple is asking - create (or have the city create) an account under the name of the "content owner" (the city), place yourself as a developer in that account, and submit the app under that account.

2) Have the city transfer to you the ownership of the 'content' (trademarks, copyrights) in the app (I suspect this will not work) and resubmit with documentation indicating you are the 'content owner' of all copyrights and trademarks used in the app.

3) If #1 is not possible because of some problem with your 'city' creating their own developer account then appeal to Apple asking if they can relax this guideline for this app because (for example) the city has a complex bidding process for all such accounts or is precluded by state law from XYZ. Include documentation that shows that authorized representatives of the city have asked you to write and publish the app on their behalf.

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PBK
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Thanks for showing Apple's complete response.


Apple is saying, quite clearly, that they want the app submitted by the 'content owner' for which the app was developed not by the developer that was hired by the 'content owner' to develop the app. Specifically, Apple wrote:


"Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the *** name.....Note that submitting documentation showing permission to publish this app on behalf of the content owner or institution will not resolve this issue. This app must be submitted under the content owner’s own Apple Developer account."


You therefore have three options (actually only the 1st makes sense):

1) Do what Apple is asking - create (or have the city create) an account under the name of the "content owner" (the city), place yourself as a developer in that account, and submit the app under that account.

2) Have the city transfer to you the ownership of the 'content' (trademarks, copyrights) in the app (I suspect this will not work) and resubmit with documentation indicating you are the 'content owner' of all copyrights and trademarks used in the app.

3) If #1 is not possible because of some problem with your 'city' creating their own developer account then appeal to Apple asking if they can relax this guideline for this app because (for example) the city has a complex bidding process for all such accounts or is precluded by state law from XYZ. Include documentation that shows that authorized representatives of the city have asked you to write and publish the app on their behalf.

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PBK
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Thank you for your help.

It really does not have any problem publishing the APP in the name of the company, I will create an account and I will do the publication.

This is the first time I publish in the APP Store, I always developed for android, so I was a bit confused about APPLE policies, but they make perfect sense.







Thank you.

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The Ninja
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