"To English-speakers’ eyes the difference between “Crabhouse” and “Clubhouse” are quite clear, but that’s not necessarily the case in other languages. In Japanese, the pronunciation of the letters “l” and “r” are largely interchangeable, as are the English vowels “a” and “u” in many cases. “Crab” and “club” is one such case and to make matters worse, when rendered in Japanese katakana script they become identical: クラブハウス."
This is clearly a purposefully confusing/punny name (it's unclear whether they made any money from downloads or if it was just an elaborate joke)... - it doesn't seem particularly draconian for Apple to wield their hammer in this particular instance...
> it's unclear whether they made any money from downloads or if it was just an elaborate joke
The top review on Japan app store (translation by yours truly):
"recently work had been so busy that I was starting to get depressed. That's when uuddenly I wanted to eat taraba-kani (red king crab), but in my wallet was 50yen and not a Noguchi (the person on the 10,000JPY bill). I sighed and fiddled around with my phone...and that's when I discovered this app. At firsti thought this app would just be about gazing at crabs, but before I knew it my fingers had tapped the install button and I had opened the app. What a wonder! My fingers wouldn't stop using the crabs and before I knew it it was morning. As I was getting ready to go to work the crab at the top right of the screen spoke out to me, "work isn't worth it, you should quit." Tears flowed from my eyes. "That's right... I had tried hard enough." That day I resigned from my job. Today I'm living happily with 32 crabs. My house smells a little fishy but I'm having a pretty fun time now. Aah, I want to eat King crab..."
Isn’t this a bit unfair? The app is free (with IAP) and the screenshots are a dead giveaway what the app is about. If crabhouse was the most popular, would they force Clubhouse to change its name? Somehow I doubt it.
"This is clearly a purposefully confusing/punny name"...
the measurement of trademark infringement is not how much money a competitor makes, but how much the owner loses. Is Clubhouse losing any money or users due to the confusing/punny name they themselves clearly chose for their product in the Japanese market? I bet not a single person who wants Clubhouse is deterred or confused by this obvious lighthearted satirical farce. This squabble probably brings more attention to their product, Streisand effect.
(and yes, this was an Apple move, not a Clubhouse move as far as we know, but the point stands)
Japanese language isn’t so strict wrt throwing in transliterated words, eg “このスキームでワークすると直ちにアグリーはできない(kono scheme de work suru to tadachi ni agree ha dekinai)” would work in Japanese webdev
This is clearly a purposefully confusing/punny name (it's unclear whether they made any money from downloads or if it was just an elaborate joke)... - it doesn't seem particularly draconian for Apple to wield their hammer in this particular instance...