How to report a copycat app on the App Store
If another app on the App Store uses your app's name, your icon, your screenshots or your description, Apple has a form for it: the App Store Content Dispute. It is free, it goes to Apple's legal team, and you do not need a lawyer to use it. What you do need is a claim that holds up. Here is how to get there.
1. Check what was actually copied
Apple will act on things that are protected. Ideas and features are not. Go through the listing part by part:
- Name. Same or confusingly similar name. App Review Guideline 4.1(c) says an app cannot use another developer's icon, brand or product name without approval. A registered trademark makes this much stronger.
- Icon. Your artwork, even cropped, recoloured, mirrored or with a badge added. This is both copyright and Guideline 4.1(c).
- Screenshots. Your screenshot artwork reused, even in a new frame or with new captions. Copyright.
- Description. Your sentences copied word for word or closely paraphrased. Copyright.
- Features, layout, the idea. Not protected. Do not claim them; it weakens everything else.
Also check the release dates. If their app came out before yours, they cannot have copied you, and filing would be a mistake.
2. Save the evidence before it changes
Copycat listings get edited or deleted, sometimes as soon as the developer sees a complaint coming. Save their icon, every screenshot and the description text with today's date, next to yours. A fingerprint (such as a SHA-256 hash) of each image proves the file has not been changed since.
3. Fill in Apple's form
Use Apple's App Store Content Dispute form. (Apple also has an App Name Dispute form, but that is for an app sitting on a name you own as a trademark, not for copies.) It asks for:
- The rights owner (you or your company), its country of legal residence, and your name, email and address.
- The App Store link of the app you are disputing (up to 50 apps in one dispute).
- The issue type for each app: Copyright (icon, screenshots, description) or Trademark (the name). Pick only what you can back up.
- The territories (Worldwide, or where you sell). Choosing Trademark adds a field for the mark itself; a registration number helps, but the form does not insist on one.
- A description of the problem. Be specific: which parts are copied, how you know, when your app was released, and what you are asking for.
There is no upload box. After you submit, Apple emails you; reply with your evidence attached and keep the reference number in the subject line. The statement at the end is sworn under penalty of perjury, so read it and tick it yourself. Apple shares your name, email and description with the other developer.
4. What happens next
Apple usually forwards the complaint to the other developer and asks the two of you to sort it out. Many copies are changed or pulled at this point. If not, Apple can remove the app. Apple publishes no timeline, so keep an eye on the listing: if it disappears, the dispute has worked.
The short version
- Claim only the name, icon, screenshots and description, and only what is really copied.
- Check they released after you.
- Save dated evidence first.
- Use Apple's App Store Content Dispute form, then reply to Apple's email with the evidence.
CloneWatch does steps 1 to 3 for you and writes the text for each field of the form. Check your app free.
General information, not legal advice. For anything serious, talk to a solicitor or IP lawyer.