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by willmacdonald 2076 days ago
Apple would not let me register a developer account using my domain name macscan.net. Got a letter from their legal team.

This was not for any product or app I was even thinking of making. This was purely: 'You cannot use that email address'.

4 comments

That looks like a possible apple product so i could see why they would not allow it.
It's not like "mac..." is an uncommon application, or developer, name, here are a few living examples:

Macinlock, Mac Cleaner, SMS Mac, Atomic Mac, Mac Powersuite, Wise Mac Care, iFamily for Mac, Macdaddy, CareMyMac, MacTvision

... the list goes on. Just go to some site like macupdate.com or _the_ Mac App Store and search for apps with "mac" in the name, there are hundreds.

For example the company macpaw.com is a company which is over 11 years in the business now. They are regularly featured, yet are allowed to exists.

It highlights Apple's arbitrariness in these situations.

Your example is not analogous to the OP. You were trying to get Apple to allow you to do something within their own product, not trying to start a business and then having another business say you can't name it something.

Apple doesn't have to let anyone register a developer account. They don't need a reason if they decide to reject certain account names.

Fair enough imo?

Might be your long held personal email or whatever, but it also looks like a scam URL.

So any Scottish people with macX names cannot use their email or name in the app store?

This is the origin of the mac name too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_(apple)

I suspect that using will@macdonald.com might have come with an extra set of problems all of its own in this particular case. (-:

* https://apple.com/uk/legal/intellectual-property/guidelinesf...

* http://macdonald.com./

* https://trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/733918...

Europe's top IP body has found McDonald's does not have an exclusive right to "Mc" or "Mac", even in the realm of fast food because of its status as a common name component: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49254551

Even in the the US where MacX or McX is a foreign construct, there have been legal cases where people named McDonald/MacDonald are allowed name their restaurants after themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_legal_cases#The_r...

rid-iCoulous..

(Hope I don't get sued too)

Do you understand their argument — or do you just not agree with it?

If the latter, did you consider...

What do you with a developer account? Develop apps? What do apps need? A support email address? Would a support email address ending in macscan.net be confusing or misleading? Might the confusion be intentional or accidental? Why even risk dealing with this confusion in the future when you can prevent it right now?

> Would a support email address ending in macscan.net be confusing ... ?

No. Not in any way.

OK, thank you. I was just curious. Good to know.