November 24th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial, Platforms: iOS | No Comments »
Apple’s VP of World-Wide Product Marketing Phil Schiller has opened the book on the App Approval Processes at the company. He tries to explainthe, sometimes controversial, rejections that have been reported lately.
He explains that App Approval is based on three conditions. The content has to be safe, the content must be suitable for the age category it’s listed in and it must work properly. As an example, Phil explained that 10% of the rejections are purely based around illegal or inappropriate content. He also explained about 1% of the rejected apps are causing Apple a lot of work because the team has to investigate if local laws allow the app. One of those examples is an app that helps consumers cheat at a casino.
Phil also commented on the illegal use of trademarks and other copyrighted materials. The company seems to get a lot of complaints about that but still we have seen some obvious titles launch like the Duckhunt and Game & Watch series that violated Nintendo’s rights.
"If you don't defend your trademarks, in the end you end up not owning them," Schiller says. "And sometimes other companies come to us saying they've seen their trademarks used in apps without permission. We see that a lot." Still, the trademark rules can be applied inflexibly, he concedes.
Check the full interview at BusinessWeek.
