
Never mind domains
Domain name squatting has become so old hat, the latest
craze is to steal names of famous software or companies on Apple's App Store.
Apple has a policy requiring that each application has a
unique name. But you can claim certain names for themselves without
actually releasing an application. This was all very well until iPhone game developers at
Atomic Antelope discovered that the name they desired for their latest iPhone
game was unavailable despite there being no application by that name in the App
Store.
They spent months developing an app called 'Twitch', when
it came to Atomic Antelope registering the app's name, it couldn't. Twitch had been already taken and Antomic Antelope had no
way of contacting the person who had registered the name. Apparently one developer who almost a year ago realized
what was happening and decided to grab "dozens and dozens of good sounding
applications names."
He did this "just in case" he ended up
developing an appropriate iPhone application. Because no one knows the names of
those who have the names it is difficult to make a quick buck selling the name
on.