Reserve an App Name

[CoffeeCup]

I want to start working on the artwork etc. for the branding of my app but I don't want to spend time on this until I know I can use the name that I want in the app store. I thought by clicking 'Add New App' in the 'Manage Your Apps' section of iTunes Connect and filling in the basic information it would tell me whether or not the name I picked was already in use and if it was available the name would be reserved for me for 180 days. However, I tested this with a dummy app that had a name I know to be in use in the app store and iTunes Connect did not object.

I've tried asking this to Apple and on the Apple developer forums and nobody has responded so far so I thought I would ask somewhere I know to be friendly and helpful; can anyone here help me register/reserve an app name?

Thanks,

CoffeeCup

[happygreenfrog]

I want to start working on the artwork etc. for the branding of my app but I don't want to spend time on this until I know I can use the name that I want in the app store. I thought by clicking 'Add New App' in the 'Manage Your Apps' section of iTunes Connect and filling in the basic information it would tell me whether or not the name I picked was already in use and if it was available the name would be reserved for me for 180 days. However, I tested this with a dummy app that had a name I know to be in use in the app store and iTunes Connect did not object.

I've tried asking this to Apple and on the Apple developer forums and nobody has responded so far so I thought I would ask somewhere I know to be friendly and helpful; can anyone here help me register/reserve an app name?

Thanks,

CoffeeCup

The best way I can think of doing that is registering a trademark for the app name before you've begun making your app, though I don't know if you're allowed to do that...

[CoffeeCup]

Thanks but I don’t want to do that. I’m open to starting with a name no one is using and trademarking it to protect my brand but I don’t want to start with a name someone is using and get litigious from the offset; that seems to be poor form and not a recipe for happiness. From everything the Apple documentation says I thought you could only add an app with an unused name and once you did that no one else could use that name as long as you submitted your app within 180 days. However, that does not match with my experience and I was hoping someone could enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong. From what I’ve read, you can reserve a name it’s just I don’t know how.

CoffeeCup

[Olivier]

iTunes Connect didn't object about the App Name being already used probably because it was used under another Default Language. In my case I found out that I wasn't able to use the App Name 'My Shapes' because it was already used under the Default language 'English'. So I have just switched from 'English' to 'UK English' and I was good to go. I have discovered this tip by reading this: http://hesh.am/2012/01/recovering-a-...tunes-connect/

Don't ask me what happens when several apps use the same name under different default languages, I've never seen this when searching the App Store. Apple probably knows better... or not.

[CoffeeCup]

Thank you Olivier; you've pinpointed the source of the problem. I've looked up 'My Shapes' in both the UK app store and the US app store and the only one listed seems to be yours; I wonder what happened to the other one...

I was going to go for 'UK English' but I guess the thing to do is try 'English' as the language as this seems to be the most ubiquitous language for apps (or I could just add loads of apps with the same name, one in each language).

Thanks again; I'm really glad to have discovered what the problem was.

[CoffeeCup]

Just a quick follow-up question:

The guy in the link you provided talks about needing to change the bundle id. As far as I can tell, you can change the bundle id until you actually upload the app (is this correct?) and why would you want to change it after you have uploaded the app?

Many thanks,
CoffeeCup