DMCA notice — “Connect 4 Online” now “Four Online”

About two months ago, the company “Hasbro” sent Google a DMCA takedown notice about our games “Connect 4 Online” and “Don’t Connect Four“. Hasbro apparently owns the trademarks of the terms “connect four” or “connect 4″ (beside more than 4.000 other terms).

Our two games have been suspended from the Android market, which is especially painful because of the good ratings and the long process to get into the upper spots in the “popular games” listing.

It was not possible to edit the information of the suspended projects in the market website. All I could do was sending a mail to the generic Google address which sent me the DMCA notice, with the question if I could update the game with another name and sent them the .apk file. I (surprisingly) got a response, but telling me I would need to submit it as a new project.

I’ve submitted the game again as “Four Online“, available in “Games -> Brain&Puzzle”. If you happen to have the original “Connect 4 Online” installed, you’ll need to remove it in order for “Four Online” to work.

I hope you enjoy the game and maybe it will (again) climb up to a good spot in the popular games listing. If you have any feedback or experience issues, please let me know!

P.S.: Be sure to check about trademarks before you release your next project! ;-)