Oh, the absurdity: iOS games with titles containing the word "memory" may be pulled from the App Store

Stuff like this really makes you question the way trademarks are awarded to entities these days. According to a report from gaming site Gamasutra, Apple is in the process of warning iOS developers that in case the titles of their games contain the word "memory," they might soon be pulled from the App Store.

It turns out that German casual game maker Ravensburger is in control of the rights for the word "memory" when it's in relation to games. What's more, the trademark has been awarded to the company in an impressive number of countries, including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, South Korea, Spain and many others. According to the source, the ban for other dev studios to use the work is to be enforced by the end of the year.

Are we the only ones who find this incredibly stupid? We can understand the right to trademark names like "Angry Birds," but to let someone trademark ordinary words such as "angry" or "birds"... or "memory" seems very weird to us.

via: Electronista