[RockerC]

Engadget and the Android Police news sites have now posted that Google are looking to revamp their Android app store developer policy rules, so that apps that pass themselves off as others, or are "confusingly similar" will now be pulled, also adding more restriction of the "use of names or icons confusingly similar to existing system apps", all in order to cut down on spoof apps and reduce intrusive advertising.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/01/googl...cy-update/

http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/31/...s-cohorts/

These apps listed below are all unofficial Android or iOS apps on Google Play and Apple App Store uses XBMC name or logo as if it was their own, and probably confusing quite a lot of users that way.

My question is if that is not a copyright or trademark violation? And why do they not just call them "XXXXXX remote for XBMC" or whatever instead?

"XBMC Remote Control Wifi"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-remote-...d372948680

"XBMC Remote"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-remote/id289316916

"XBMC Remote Control for iPad"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-remote-...d416082141

"XBMC RC"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-rc/id464801035

"XBMC Constellation"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-constel...d437807301

"XBMC Commander"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-commander/id401852518

"XBMC Media Player"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-media-p...d512179827

"XBMC Music"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmc-music/id506426532

"iXBMC Remote"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/ixbmc-remote/id529842245

"XBMoteC"
http://itunes.apple.com/app/xbmotec/id386296182

"XBMC remote control"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...xbmcremote

"XBMC Server (host) - Free"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...ServerFree

"XBMC Server (host) - Paid"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...ServerPaid

"XBMC / Boxee Remote"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...xbmcremote

"XBMC Widgets"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...xbmcwidget

"Boxee/XBMC Remote"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...rewchatham

If XBMC was a company like Microsoft, Apple, or Google then this would be grounds for suing.

You would never ever see a an third-party app be called "Microsoft Server" or "Google Remote" on any of these app stores.

I mean that XBMC should not have to call their own app "Official XBMC Remote" as that should really be the only app named "XBMC Remote" on these app stores.

[Ned Scott]

This isn't an official statement regarding logo/trademark usage, and everything is subject to change considering we will soon be on the Android Play Store for the very first time.

We actually had a few discussions about this since there was one entry that was causing a lot of confusion after we made the XBMC for Android announcement, both in icon and in name. Generally speaking, we're okay with remotes, fan websites, skins, etc, using our logo and name as long as they follow our current logo guidelines (there's a PDF of this somewhere... I can't seem to find the link right now). If it causes confusion then we'll probably first ask politely that the developer of the app tweak the name and/or icon to avoid that confusion, and then go from there.

Some of these remotes were done before we even had our own official remote. For example, the iOS App Store's "XBMC remote" was the first iOS remote, and was even featured in a blog post on xbmc.org. These apps (even the paid ones) are valuable tools for the community that we love to see made available for everyone to use.

We probably will require some more formal guidelines in the future as XBMC grows, but I don't imagine we'd flat out stop letting people use the logo and/or name in other programs and such. I could imagine us adopting something like what the Raspberry Pi Foundation has done for their logo usage, but maybe a little softer than that. Maybe.