HACKER Q&A
📣 pentacent_hq

Does Apple not care about fake apps in the App Store?


I am the author of an open source desktop app (for Linux, macOS, and Windows) that is distributed via our website.

Recently, I have been receiving complaints from people who said they purchased a "pro version" of my app for $34.99 on the Apple App Store (for iOS - even though there is no iOS version of our app).

The App Store listing uses our app icon, the exact app name and has even tacked a (TM)-symbol to it. It seems to be AI-generated slop and I'm not sure if it provides any functionality at all.

I reached out to Apple via their trademark complaint form a week ago. All they seem to have done so far is forward my complaint to the author of the scam listing.

So, here is my question for folks who have been in a similar situation: Does Apple genuinely not care about fake apps in the App Store - or is there a better way to report them?

  👤 PaulHoule Accepted Answer ✓
No, it's notorious that they don't.
👤 Someone
You don’t explicitly say why you think Apple should take action. You don’t say you own that trademark, or that doing that is against the license of your open source app.

Which of these is it?

> I reached out to Apple via their trademark complaint form a week ago. All they seem to have done so far is forward my complaint to the author of the scam listing.

What else would you expect them to do in that period? You told them “App X is breaking trademark Y that I own and I didn’t give them permission to do so”. They can’t take that at face value, so they asked for a rebuttal. A week isn’t too long a period to give them to reply, isn’t it?