Google Play has removed a few dozen "Launchpad" apps from its store as they allegedly infringe the similarly named trademark. The broad takedown request was submitted by Focusrite, a UK audio equipment manufacturer who trademarked the term.
With nearly three million active users FrostWire is one of the most popular Android apps but a few hours ago the BitTorrent client and media downloader disappeared from the Play store. Google cites a YouTube related violation of the Developer Distribution Agreement.
Early February an Android dev revealed how his popular calendar app was suffering from 85% piracy rates. The news was echoed in dozens of headlines, but how did things turn out? TorrentFreak is informed that sales are dramatically up and piracy has been slashed by a third.
Google Play has rejected a popular BitTorrent client because it uses the word "BitTorrent" in the full description. Apparently, Google now sees references to an open source transfer protocol as a no-go, stating that BitTorrent is another brand. While BitTorrent Inc. had the term trademarked years ago, the company didn't…