My app was copied on the App Store or Google Play

Apple: the App Store Content Dispute

Apple takes intellectual-property complaints about apps through its App Store Content Dispute form, on its legal site's dispute forms page. Apple's own description is that apps are made available by third-party providers, so it forwards the dispute to the app's provider and asks them to resolve it with you directly.

That makes an Apple dispute a different shape from a classic takedown: expect a conversation with the developer, brokered by Apple, rather than a silent removal. A formal DMCA notice can also be sent to Apple's copyright agent at [email protected]. Trademark problems about an app's name go through a separate App Name Dispute form.

Google Play: the legal removal tool

Google Play copyright complaints go through Google's legal removal troubleshooter: choose Google Play, then Apps, then legal reasons, intellectual property and copyright, and confirm you are the owner or authorized to act for them. That opens Google's copyright form for Play. Ebooks sold on Google Play Books have their own branch in the same tool. Google treats each of its products separately, so a complaint about the Play listing does not cover the same material on YouTube or in Search; each is its own report.

Google forwards qualifying copyright notices to the Lumen database, which publishes the requester's name, the rights holder's name and the reported URLs. Contact details are not shared there. Google's developer policy says developers may be asked to show their rights to use copyrighted content, and that removed apps can be reinstated on appeal if Google made an error.

What happens after you file

Because Apple forwards a dispute to the developer rather than acting alone, what comes back first is a response from the developer. Some replace the copied artwork or text in an update, which removes the infringement without the app coming down; if that is what you wanted, it is a good outcome. Some argue. If they argue and the material really is yours, the dispute continues through Apple, and a formal DMCA notice to Apple's copyright agent is the next step.

On Google Play, an app removed for infringement disappears together with its earlier versions. The developer can appeal, and Google says it reinstates apps where it finds it made an error. A developer can also respond with a counter-notice, after which the statute allows the material to return in 10 to 14 business days unless you start a court case.

Keep a copy of the app listing as it was when you filed: screenshots of the store page and, where you can, the version number. Developers update quickly once a dispute arrives, and you want a record of what was there.

The evidence that decides app disputes

1. 1

   Show it was yours first

   Your repository history with commit dates, your first store release date, the design files with their creation dates. Dated, third-party records beat anything you assemble afterwards.

2. 2

   Show exactly what is the same

   Side-by-side screenshots of identical artwork, the same icon, the same text. For code, the specific files or functions, ideally with something distinctive that could only have come from yours: a typo, an unusual comment, a placeholder string.

3. 3

   Separate the copied from the similar

   List what was copied and leave out what is merely alike. A complaint that mixes the two is easier to dismiss as a whole.

4. 4

   Check your own licenses

   If you used open-source code or licensed assets, make sure the material you are complaining about is yours, not a shared component you both used.

Copies outside the stores

A cloned app may come with a website that reuses your screenshots and text, an APK on a download site, or a repository with your code. Each of those is a separate notice: the website to its host, the download site to whoever serves the file, the repository to GitHub. See code copied on GitHub, and the free scan for pages reusing your website text and images.

These routes are newer to us than websites and marketplaces. We have read Apple's and Google's process pages through their published help, not yet through a filing, so we confirm the live route when your case opens and tell you if anything differs from what is written here.