The creators of the simple yet popular app Yo are going after clones and parodies of it, sending letters asking for their removal. TechCrunch published copies of letters sent to the makers of similar apps like YOLO, Yo, Hodor! and Ahoy, alleging that Yo's intellectual property rights were being infringed upon. Yo lets users send just the word "Yo" to others with the app; its clones do much the same, some only changing the word sent — "ahoy," for instance, or "Hodor," a reference to a less-than-eloquent character from "Game of Thrones."
Yo famously launched as a joke and many were shocked when it received $1.2 million in funding from venture capitalists. Some app developers clearly felt Yo and its investment were ripe for parody, but some of the clones, completed in hours, may in fact be in violation of the App Store's rules, which prohibit "attempts to leverage a popular app" by having a similar name. "Flappy Bird" also faced this issue after dozens of similar games flooded the market, many of which were later removed for failing to add anything to the equation.
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— Devin Coldewey, NBC News