Delver Lab For Magic: The Gathering Shares Update About Trademark Claim From Wizards of the Coast

Last week, Delver Lens, the free app that scans, shares, and organizes Magic: The Gathering cards, was removed from the Google Play Store US due to a copyright claim from Wizards of the Coast referring to the use of Magic: The Gathering, but now the developer has taken it to Twitter to share us an update about the claim.

Delver Lab said that he changed the app's name to no longer have the trademarked text and contacted the lawyer who filed the complaint asking them to notify Google.

"The lawyer replied that Wizards has no objection to changing the app's name but they'll not take any actions to reinstate the app," the developer said. "Wizards' claim does not pertain to the app itself, but they are currently using Google TOS to prevent the app from being reinstated. Google has been replying generically with roughly the same statement saying they can't do anything. We have an issue where subscribers in the US can't use the premium features at the moment.This issue happens in part because monetized apps published on Google Play are required to use Google's Billing API, which not only collects an abusive fee of 30% but also limits what we programmers can do when issues like this one happen on the API."

The developer went on to say that he published a new app in the US Google Play Store that's still under review, which is the same app available in other regions. It will be free until the release of the next set, on January 15. The new app will be available worldwide on January 15 but the old version will still get support for one year after that.

"Whatever legal claims Wizards has against the app, the core functionalities are not related to Wizards at all and there is nothing they can do about it," the developer added. He admitted that he made the mistake of leaving "Magic: The Gathering" in the app's name, and said that even though he tried to resolve it with Wizards, and even though they agree that the name no longer infringes their trademark, they still used Google's TOS to prevent the app from being reinstated.

"I wish Wizards would be more understanding about this and Google would have a better process to deal with this kind of situation that wouldn't hurt small developers," Delver Lab said.

Related: Jeff Hoogland Explains Why He Quits Magic: The Gathering Arena