Share A few weeks ago one of the employees of the App Store refused to accept an Android magazine application, claiming that there is inadequate content in the meta data of the application. The application focusing on the Android OS was probably refused by the uninformed Apple employee because the word "Android" was used in its description or among its tags.

This story highlights that many are not familiar how the Android trademark and the items in the Brand Guidelines shall or shall not be used.The Development Terms of Apple do state that in case of the infringement of certain licenses the applications can be refused (or deleted) from the App Store, however, in the above case the term was only used in a descriptive way, thus one can not talk about the infringement of any license.

Obviously an other reason for the rejection is the prejudice of the Apple employee towards its company, and knowing the attachment of the Apple users to their devices this can be understood – but still is not an excuse for not even explaining the reason for the rejection, as it should have been done by quoting the related clause of the Developer Program License Agreement.

Let us now take a look at the terms of use of the Android Brand and the related items. Google gives the following guidelines on android.com

The Android Robot

Can be used, modified or reproduced in any way. The standard green color of the droid is the one with the HEX code #A4C639. Using the robot or any modification of it is allowed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.

The Android Logo

Source: Android.com
The Android logo may not be used.

The Android typeface

Using the custom typeface is also forbidden.

Android in Official Names

Using the words "Android" and "Droid" on their own is not allowed, using these is only allowed as descriptors (like "for Android"). Would we want to include "for Android" in the logo, it has to be smaller in size than the logo itself. The first instance of this use should be followed by a TM symbol.

Android in Messaging

May be used in text as a descriptor, as long as it is followed by a proper generic term (e.g. "Android™ application").

We must bear in mind, that Android is the trademark of the Google Inc. and using it is only allowed after its permission. And the lesson of the story above is, that the relevant terms and conditions must always be studied and complied with before the development of any application, let it be Android, iOS or anything else, because otherwise we could loose a lot of time and energy.

[Source HelloAndroid]