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Comment by duxup | Hacker News Reader

They took it down worldwide? Or just in China?

Worldwide, I have the st00pids.

But is it worldwide under just the Chinese name "点击英雄" or also the English name "Clicker Heroes"? The only relevant reply I saw was not definitive on this:

> We can re-name it in China, yeah. With a ton of effort changing all of the artwork we created with the old name. But renaming "Clicker Heroes" (which we already trademarked) in the U.S. and EU would be senseless

Initially I thought it was the latter but now I think it is the former (only the Chinese name affected).

Edit: this reply from the reddit thread but not be the game author suggests it is the former as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/bs6n3l/apple_remov...

This. Everyone's downvoting my comment below, but they're not understanding this. People who say this is not the issue need to explain why.

I read your comment now but I don't see the relation, I'm just wondering whether they are banned by Apple from selling under both the Chinese and English names or just the Chinese name.

In regards to your comment below, a Chinese name doesn't indicate that they are targeting China -- there are other Chinese-speaking markets like the sovereign countries of Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. But I agree that they likely were in part targeting sales in China, and that they ought to have trademarked the Chinese name in China (along with other Chinese-speaking markets).

I'd have to understand Malaysian IP laws before I can comment on that, may or may not agree. For Taiwan, I disagree, as Taiwan uses traditional Chinese characters, not simplified Chinese characters. IANAL, so maybe simplified vs traditional doesn't matter either in IP matters, of course.

Yeah I'm a bit confused now.

It is the only version, which is localized in both English and Chinese, that was taken down worldwide. You can go see on the app store that the English "Clicker Heroes" is removed from all search results.

Why does it matter if only the Chinese name is affected? Apple doesn't ban names, it only bans apps. Therefore the app gets taken down in the entire world. Really the lesson here is to create a new "app" in every supported country to prevent this type of abuse.

It's mentioned in the first sentence.

Sorry

Worldwide

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