Five Night’s at Freddy’s developer Scott Cawthon has filed for a subpoena that, if approved, would help bring an individual responsible for posting a fake sequel on the Apple App Store to justice.

Five Night’s at Freddy’s 4 was sold to the iOS App Store by a so-called "Lazada Polodi" as an official sequel to Cawthon’s successful franchise.

Polodi even cut copied and pasted Five Nights at Freddy’s original description text in to the game’s listing, and charged unwitting fans $9.99 before the game was pulled a few days later.

Game of Clones

Now Cawthon’s attorneys have filed documents at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. These documents ask the court to issue a subpoena that would force Apple to disclose information about this Lazada Polodi and allow him to be tracked down – such as IP addresses.

The documents, first discovered by Patently Apple, state that “the purpose for the DMCA Subpoena is sought is to obtain the identify (sic) of an alleged infringer or infringers and that such information will only be used for the purpose of protecting Cawthon's rights under Title 17 of the U.S. Code."

In legal speak, the copyright law that the documents invoke says that “A copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf may request the clerk of any United States district court to issue a subpoena to a service provider for identification of an alleged infringer in accordance with this subsection.”

Apple has until 25 May at 10am PT to comply, or to challenge the subpoena.

It’s the first setback in a successful year for Cawthon, following Five Nights at Freddy’s debut release last summer. Two sequels have launched on to iOS and Android since then, and Cawthon officially announced Five Nights at Freddy’s 4: The Final Chapter to launch this Halloween.

April also saw Warner Bros. acquire the rights for a feature film building off the games.