FC Barcelona Live Wallpaper shutting down because of copyrights

About a week ago I got an interesting email that you can read below. What it said can be basically put in short like that: dear Sir/Madam, blah, blah, we represent FC Barcelona football club, blah, blah, you're using our logo and colors, blah, blah, they are registered as trade marks, blah, blah, we're kindly asking you to unpublish your app, blah, blah, unless you want us to be more persuasive.

Asking them nicely for permission didn't help. Apparently there was an FCB Apps Program a while ago that let developers introduce their app proposals to be accepted. Unfortunately it's over now and there's no information regarding the next edition. That's why I'm going to get the app out of Google Play really soon. If you were considering whether to buy it or not, you'd better hurry up.

The whole story definitely taught me a lesson. At the time of writing the app I didn't even think of copyrights and trade marks. Anyway I would have never expected that a live wallpaper with 12 installs could get me in touch with a football club that I really like. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I might even make the source code public, so you can learn from it if you like. Let me know if you're interested.

Here's the full email that I got, if you have problems sleeping:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are contacting you on behalf of our client FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA.

FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA is the exclusive and legitimate owner of the well-known trademarks “Futbol Club Barcelona”, “FCB”, “FCBarcelona” and “Barça” (among others), registered as international trademarks, such as FCBARCELONA (Id. Number: 1051714), FCBARCELONA (Id. Number: 864540), FCBARCELONA, (Id. Number: 907675), FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA (Id. Number: 516357) FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA (Id. Number: 731062) BARÇA (Id. Number: 1081332) BARÇA (Id. Number: 516357), F.C.B (Id. Number: 633377), F.C.B (Id. Number: 717965), FCB (Id. Number: 864541), FCB (Id. Number: 907670).

These trademarks also protect FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA’S shield, as a logotype, and the Football Team’s official colours.

We have been aware that you are the developer of the following Application:

Código de Contenido: 022-002-00146
Url del Contenido: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.bartoszwesolowski.fcbarcelonalogolwp&feature=search_result
Vulneraciones: Copyright and trademark FC Barcelona
Número de vulneraciones: 1
Detalles vulneraciones
- app: FC Barcelona Logo LWP
Dominio Base: htttp://www.redpoints.es
Administrador del Site: ---
Persona Jurídica: ---
Hosting: --


This Application infringes our client’s exclusive rights, in particular, its copyrights, trademarks, logotypes and image rights.

The Application is using signs which are identical or similar to F.C. Barcelona’s trademarks, taking unfair advantage of the Club’s reputation. This constitutes an infringement of our client’s trademark rights.

Additionally, the distribution of an application entirely based on F.C. Barcelona, without the Club’s authorization, constitutes an act of unfair competition.

Therefore, we kindly ask you, upon reception of this notice, to immediately:

1. Withdraw the abovementioned Application from the distribution platform where it is being offered to the public.
2. Delete from your systems the Application and any and all materials violating our client’s copyrights, trademarks and image rights.
3. Stop and refrain in the future from using and/or reproducing materials (images, trademarks, videos, logotypes, etc.) that infringe FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA’S exclusive rights.

We believe in good faith that the abovementioned Application has not been authorized by our client, its agent or the law.

We declare under penalty of perjury that all the information contained in this notice is accurate, and that we are authorized to act on the behalf of FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA.

We remain at your disposal in case you would like to contact FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA for an official license for your product.

Sincerely,

Josep Coll

RED POINTS SOLUTIONS TEAM