Thanks for leaving a comment. You’re exactly right in that I am speculating as to whether a developer used a specific keyword since they are non-public. However, in the case of GW Monkey, the word “Nintendo” did not appear in the name of the app or anywhere in the app description. So, that leads me to believe that it was used as a non-public keyword. And, in fact, Mr. Ardiri admitted that he used “Nintendo” as a keyword.

You make the suggestion that this may all be a result of Apple’s algorithm being “smart.” I certainly do not claim to know much about search algorithms or computer programing, but I highly doubt it. Even when you do a Google search, the results you receive in at least the first few pages either use the keyword in the “behind the scenes” code or the keyword appears in the text of the web page. I guess you could analogize keyword use in the App Store to website metatags or even keyword use for paid sponsored links on Google and other search engines.

Again, I appreciate your feedback and look forward to receiving further comments from you and other developers on this topic.

I very much appreciate you leaving a comment regarding your app and telling me about your experience with Nintendo. It’s a good lesson for all app developers. However, I am confused as to why your app would continue to show up in response to a search for “Nintendo,” if that keyword has been removed. Perhaps the search indexes are cached as you suggest

As you point out, I understand that Apple does review keywords for relevancy and that it will not allow the name of another application to be used as a keyword. But, I wonder if Apple allows part of an app’s name to be used as a keyword. For instance, if my app’s name is “Big Fat Pink Pig,” and somebody else had another app with a pig theme and wanted to use the word “pig” as a keyword, I would think Apple would allow that. Am I wrong?

Again, thank you for commenting on my post.

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Thank you for submitting “XXXXXX” to the App Store. We’ve reviewed “XXXXXX” and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because of inappropriate ‘Keywords’ used to identify your application. We will not post applications that reference other applications in their search criteria. It would be appropriate to remove “YYYYYY”.

Please visit iTunes Connect, Manage Applications to remove the inappropriate ‘Keywords’, and resubmit your binary for review.

Note: Keyword terms must be related to your application content and cannot contain offensive terms. It is not appropriate to reference other applications. Keywords can be single words or phrases; keep in mind the text field is limited to 100 characters. All Keywords must be separated by commas otherwise the system will see it as one keyword.
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i have changed the application name and the keyword; but this is the template that they use for this response. You cannot use a competitors product name or trademark in the keywords. one example; that i have seen is rejections for using a word like “facebook” – it is not acceptable in the keyword list.

i’ll be happy to answer any questions

// Aaron Ardiri
Mobile 1UP
http://www.mobile1up.com/

Mobile 1UP developed a number of game and watch clones/copies; which, did not use Nintendo’s trademarked characters (specifically, Mario, Donkey Kong) – however, due to the success of press around the games; we were forced to remove them as they could cause confusion being associated with Nintendo. GW Monkey is based on the game GW Chef – we replaced all the graphics, naming etc – the fact that it is a monkey has nothing to do with donkey kong.

we have dealt with Nintendo’s legal team and changed our applications – to remove any confusion and legal recourse around trademark and copyright infringement – we didn’t have to; we did it anyway because fighting the legal case would require significant funds.

BTW: the keywords for GW Monkey are:

game, watch, lcd, monkey, classic, fun, addictive, kids, simple

we used to have the word Nintendo; which we also removed – maybe the search indexes are cached? our description also used to mention the previous game and that it was removed on request by Nintendo.

// Aaron Ardiri
Mobile 1UP
http://www.mobile1up.com/

question: how do you know this is not just the way the apple search algorithm is implemented? Maybe it is smart?
isn’t that the same problem class as a Google search result, which can return any results when entering a trademark as search term?
Point is while u might be right I think you can’t force apple to reveal how their app search works

Plus keywords are non public, so it”s again speculation if a dev used a trademarked word.
(Disclaimer: I’m an app developer and worked with apple through a TM violation, feel free to
contact me. Great posts!)