Guideline 4.1 Copycats, in plain English
“Come up with your own ideas.”
Guideline 4.1 says your app must be your own: don't copy a popular app or pass off small changes to another app's name or design as yours, don't impersonate other apps or services, and don't use another developer's icon, brand or product name in your app's name or icon without their approval. Impersonation counts as a breach of the Developer Code of Conduct.
Checked against Apple’s guidelines on (Apple’s version of ). Apple’s reviewers make the final call.
What Guideline 4.1 means
Part (a) is about ideas. Apple's App Review Help suggests finding an underserved audience, giving an existing concept a new spin, and designing original interfaces, and asks you not to imitate other apps' features and functionality.
Part (b) is about impersonation: an app that pretends to be another app or service, or to come from someone it doesn't, can lead to removal from the Apple Developer Program, not only a rejection.
Part (c) is about brands. Another developer's icon, brand or product name can't appear in your app's name or icon without their approval. Apple's help page extends the same idea to metadata: no popular app names or trademarked terms in any field, and no protected material without permission.
If your app does have the rights to someone else's brand or content, Apple's App Review page asks you to provide the authorization, such as a signed contract or written permission, with the submission.
Why apps are turned down under Guideline 4.1
The app copies another app
The name, icon, layout or features closely follow a popular app with only small changes.
The app uses another brand without permission
A well-known logo in the icon, a product name in the app name, or characters, sports teams or celebrities in the screenshots, with no authorization attached.
The app appears to impersonate a company or service
A name and look that suggest an official app of a bank, a government service or a brand the developer doesn't represent.
How to fix it and resubmit
- Rename the app and redraw the icon so that neither borrows another app's name, brand or look.
- Change the design and features that follow another app most closely, and make the app's own idea the first thing people see.
- Remove other brands, trademarks and protected images from the app, the screenshots and every metadata field, unless you have permission.
- If you do have rights, attach the contract or written permission in the App Review Information section and mention it in the notes.
- Keep your developer name and Support URL accurate, upload the new build or metadata, and resubmit.
How Borel helps
Borel writes each app from your own description, and you choose its name, so what it copies is up to what you ask for. Its icon is yours too: upload your own or have Borel design one from your words, and change it whenever you like.
Borel doesn't check names, icons or screenshots against other apps or trademarks, so before you publish, make sure nothing in them belongs to someone else.
Questions people ask
Can I make an app like an existing one?
You can build in the same category, but Apple asks for your own ideas: a new audience, a new spin or an original design, not a copy with minor changes to the name or interface.
Can I use a brand's name if my app works with its product?
Not in your app's name or icon without the brand owner's approval. If you have permission, attach it to the submission.
What's the difference between 4.1 and 4.3?
4.1 is about copying someone else's app or brand. 4.3 is about duplicates: several near-identical apps of your own, or yet another app in a crowded category.
Related guidelines
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