Infringement of 9Gag's trademark [pdf]
9gagforandroid.com
9gagforandroid.com
Content ownership is a little murkier, of course, because 9GAG is a company that thrives off stealing and rebranding the content of others. There's also no reason they couldn't have played ball - there's lots of alternative mobile clients for sites like Reddit and Hacker News because they create a healthier community and fill a niche that the creators of those sites can't fulfill. Still, if 9GAG decided they wanted the ad revenue this app would deprive them of, I can't really fault them.
(though, to be clear, I still totally fault them for being a shitty company that steals content!)
I can't deny the website domain is asking for trouble. Truthfully, I wouldn't mind taking it down, it's just a marketing stunt anyway because back then, they haven't have an official Android app.
What irks me is that they refuse to work together _at all_, and worst, their Android app is not up to standard.
But well, now that it has come to this, I will pivot to another service which has a healthier devs and community.
The trademark issue is likely resolvable by removing the "9GAG for Android" tagline and any other implied or expressed official connection to 9GAG that might appear in the app, website, or other marketing materials.
What they're referring to with regards to the copyright violation is a little more complex: are they referring to the user-supplied content? Did ruqqq use 9GAG creative in the app? Something else? If it's anything other than the user-supplied content, which 9GAG doesn't have a copyright on anyway, that should be relatively straightforward to resolve, as well.
But GP is referring to ruqqq's implied offer to make Nine the official 9GAG app (at least in some capacity), not that ruqqq actually is, at this moment, in charge.
Anyhow, I'm not going to make this into im-a-bitter-dev commotion. Some here even state that it's not the users I'm worried about because if I am, then I can just direct them to the official app.
My real concern is that my app existed before 9GAG's, and although 90% of my users are using it free, there are some who appreciate the work I put into making a nice-to-use app and bought the "Pro" version. These are the people I would NOT want to disappoint. I'm still weighing solutions and brainstorming on how to make their dollar spent worth it. But for now, I've removed 9GAG references in the Play Store listings.
The letter does claim that you are using their content, but the use of which infringes on their trademark and copyright. Your use of the user-submitted content would not infringe on their copyright: users were never asked to assign copyright to 9GAG, and in most cases, would not be able to as they were not the original copyright holders to begin with.
If there was a fundamental copyright problem (i.e., the entire basis of your app is copyright infringement due to an ownership claim on all the user-supplied content) and they wanted to shut your app down, they could've just issued a run-of-the-mill DMCA takedown notice to Google. That they didn't seems, to me, that they are fine with your app as long as you remove the infringing elements.
If you were interested in keeping Nine around without fear of 9GAG taking additional action, I'd ask them what content, exactly, infringes on their copyright and have them enumerate what you need to remove. It may be something relatively straightforward, like certain assets or logos that you may be using in your app.
> Subscriber shall own all Subscriber Content that Subscriber contributes to the Site, but hereby grants and agrees to grant 9GAG, Inc a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right and license (with the right to sublicense), to use, copy, cache, publish, display, distribute, modify, create derivative works and store such Subscriber Content and to allow others to do so (“Content License”) in order to provide the Services.
And under section 2 "Site Content", they claim ownership of everything except user-generated content (emphasis here is mine):
> All materials displayed or performed on the Site, including, but not limited to text, graphics, logos, tools, photographs, images, illustrations, software or source code, audio and video, animations and Themes (as defined below), including without limitation the 9GAG, Inc Template Code (as defined below) (collectively, “Content”) (other than Content posted by Subscriber (“Subscriber Content”)) are the property of 9GAG, Inc and/or third parties and are protected by Hong Kong and international copyright laws.
Even if they did try claim ownership, one can't transfer a copyright they don't hold, which is the case for most of 9GAG's user-supplied content.
That said, I am impressed by a person who can get thousands of people to install his/her app. Now that you know how to get people, you can traverse the trademark line more safely in the future.
(I don't have a dog in this race, but I like your tone and don't care for theirs at all!)
Interestingly, the only actual 9gag trademark i can find is for a character mark that was registered 2 days ago.
The content? It's not theirs.
The name? NINE is too generic to have an association to "9GAG".
What else do you use? You named the site "9GAG for Android", which was risky. Change that, and then ask them - in writing - to inform you which other legal issues they see with your app.
Again, they don't own the content. They could prevent you from scraping their content, and/or revoke your API license, and/or claim that your scraping was in conflict with their TOS, but again, ask them what the issue is.
Like the letter said if you're truly just worried for your users redirect them to 9gag's app, but the problem is that's not your real concern apparently.
If they do get it taken out of the Play Store, you could always provide the .apk for people to download.
These apps actually are annoying. The name should indicate they're not official. All of these apps harvest some user data and (whether deserved or not) I trust it to the name brand more than a random developer.
Anyhow it seems like they had a reasonable exchange. I loved how after the threatening legal letter the co-founder's email has a link to his funny collection!
Edit: but I do appreciate the developer filling a need that wasn't met. I think I probably have this app installed actually. Anyhow, it's never fun to sift through multiple, similar looking apps.
That statement may be false, but that's indeed, a funny phrase.