Question
On Google Play or in the App Store you often see apps that are basically clones of a currently trending or famous app. Those "derivative" apps are very similar in the type of service they provide, in how they do it, maybe even the design. If nothing seems to be distinctive but the name and the app's icon, does the owner of the prestigious app have any recourse against the derivatives?
Answers: 2 public & 0 private
Depends on what is being "protected" (see current trends in trade-dress and UI/UX design elements). Copyright avoids outright cloning, trademark passing off and patents novel advances in the state of the art. So if the cloners are not infringing, there is no legal basis for recourse. This shows that a first mover advantage is only temporary which is what you'd expect in a competitive market so it is up to the app-owner to keep on innovating and building value, usually around some variant of a trade secret.
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