After a full month of Apple rejections, the iOS version of Inkwell has been approved. Before I get to that, there is one additional update from Apple, this time from their trademarks team who I reached out to. This is part of the response I got this week:
As we are sure you are aware, Apple’s trademarks are among our most valuable assets and help customers identify Apple’s products and services. Our trademarks not only identify our company, but also identify the quality and value of our products and services.
As such, we cannot provide you with legal advice. You may wish to consult with an attorney to discuss whether your proposed use is trademark use and whether such use infringes one of Apple’s trademarks.
In other words, “good luck with that, you’re on your own.”
I care a lot about the names of things. In the App Store, Micro.blog is called simply… “Micro.blog”. No gimmicky taglines appended to the name. So it was a little painful that as a last resort, I’ve decided to temporarily rename the Inkwell app to “Ink•well for Micro.blog”. Yes, with a bullet character in the middle of the word.
I tried a few other renames before that, keeping Inkwell spelled correctly but shuffling it around with other words. “Ink•well” is the only name that Apple approved.
As a hilarious side effect, the app is almost impossible to search for at the moment. There is a direct link on this help page.
To more narrowly make the case for Inkwell approval under review guidelines section 3.1.3, I’ve also removed two features from the app:
- Creating a new blog post
- Making a new highlight
These are important parts of Inkwell that exist on Android, macOS, and the web. I will bring them back for iOS, but I plan to go slowly and be as thoughtful as I can about how the app is pitched to app review.
The final point is for folks overseas. Inkwell 1.0 for iOS is initially only available in the US-based App Store. I put this limitation in place to remove any confusion about external linking entitlements. Rules are a little different in the United States because of Epic vs. Apple. However, I see no technical reason from the guidelines why this is necessary, so I hope to expand to Europe and the rest of the world as soon as the dust settles with this release.
Thanks to all the Micro.blog customers who have been patient while we worked through this with Apple. Several times I considered rebranding the app for real, across all platforms, but I’m going to stubbornly stick with its original name. Onward!
