Apple clamps down on app squatters, gives devs 120 days to make good on their titles

Coming off the back of Rovio's recent experience of app squatting on Android, Apple has unveiled a new rule to eradicate similar situations on the App Store.

As reported by TechCrunch, the firm is now giving developers what amounts to a 120 day deadline to submit when they register any names on the marketplace.

If the studio fails to upload a binary for the title in question within 90 days, they'll be emailed to let them know they have a further 30 days to do so before their claim on the name is rescinded and the title made available to other developers.

Naming the app squatters

It's a set up that's designed to ensure developers can't claim a name indefinitely, simply to stop others releasing titles under the same guise.

Until now, a developer could register any name of their choosing without ever having to deliver the associated app to market.

As a result, anyone with foresight could, snap up a name that could later prove to be valuable to a rival studio.

It's an issue PC World covered back in October, with the site speculating that some developers were registering titles via iTunes Connect simply to ensure they had ownership of all the names they might possibly want to utilise in the future.

As a result, scores of prospective titles weren't available to studios with genuine apps to register on the platform.

Angry Rovio

It's a problem Rovio encounter on Android earlier this month when the developer tried to launch Angry Birds on Android Market.

The firm was forced, albeit initially, to release the game as Angry Birds Lite Beta as the title Angry Birds had already been snapped up by CrazyAndroidApps.

The two parties later seemed to reach an agreement, however, with CrazyAndroidApps' title renamed Angry Birds Joke.

[source: TechCrunch]