Adobe comes after indie game emulator Delta for copying its logo | TechCrunch

after apple Loose Its App Store guidelines to allow game emulator, retro game emulator Delta – An app took 10 years to develop – Reach the top of the App Store charts. But the increased attention also brought the threat of legal action, as Adobe targeted Delta for a logo that looked too similar to its own.

Delta’s game emulator was created by developer Riley Testut, who started his experiments Before turning to iOS, let’s figure out how to load the game onto a graphing calculator. The app itself evolved from Testut’s older app, GBA4iOS, which took advantage of a loophole to run emulated games on iOS without jailbreaking the iPhone. Consumer demand for such apps was high – millions of people used GBA4iOS when it was available. But Apple eventually shut things down and put GBA4iOS out of business.

Now, as Apple faces regulatory pressure to open up its App Store to increased competition, the tech giant has started allowing game emulators in April. This has opened up a new market for developers who previously could not take advantage of the broad distribution power brought by the App Store. In short, Apple would like to host these apps itself rather than compete with alternative app stores, where apps it once banned could find traction among consumers.

Testut took advantage of the opportunity launch delta to the public and it soon became the number one app on the App Store, topping Apple’s charts for several weeks and receiving millions of downloads. More than a month later, Delta is still ranking highly as the number 33 app overall on the US App Store. Meanwhile, the number 5 slot is now held by another game emulator, PPSSPP (a PSP emulator).

However, becoming a top app on the App Store has its drawbacks. Although more under-the-radar apps like GBA4iOS have been ignored, Delta’s rise to No. 1 has brought increased scrutiny.

According to A post on MastodonAdobe came after Delta, threatening legal action because it felt Delta’s logo was too similar to its own.

“Adobe is threatening legal action because they think our logo is too similar – so we changed it,” the post explained. “This new icon is an inspired design Caroline Moore (@[email protected]), we hope you all love it as much as we do,” it reads.

Both logos featured a broken triangle resembling the Greek letter delta. However, Adobe’s logo is red and white, and its “A” is thick and extends to the edge of the app icon. Delta’s logo is purple and white, small and centered in the middle of the app icon. Of course, they’re also working in different places, because Adobe offers a suite of tools for creatives, not just a way to play retro games. It is hard to argue that there will be a lot of confusion among consumers over which logo is which.

Delta tells us it first received an email from Adobe’s attorney on Wednesday, May 7, informing the company that its app icon violated Adobe’s “A” log and requesting that “Adobe’s It should be changed so as not to violate “rights or law”.

Adobe gave Delta until May 17 to respond, but then received a second email from Apple saying Adobe asked Apple to remove the Delta app for violating its trademarks. Delta responded to both companies to explain that its icon was a stylized Greek letter delta, not an “A”, but that it would update the logo nonetheless.

To avoid any potential legal issues, Delta launched a new logo that resembles a broken triangle. Unfortunately, the redesign is not as simple and clean as before, leading some users to suggest that it could have been taken a different route – such as using lowercase delta letter, For example, or having custom artwork Made as brand new.

Testut told us there’s a temporary logo on the new app’s icon, but it plans to update it once again when Delta 1.6 rolls out.

“…We plan to update the icon soon to a ‘final’ version – also designed by Caroline,” he said, adding, “We’re not too concerned about brand impact in the interim.”