App Store Binary Rejected - The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name

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I have recently uploaded a new application to iTunes Connect for the approval process. Its version is 1.0. Today the binary was rejected and the following was mentioned in the resolution center.

The seller and company names associated with your app do not reflect the name, “Secured” in the app or its metadata, as required by section 1.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.

Next Steps

Your app must be published under a seller name and company name that reflects the Secured brand. If you have developed these apps on behalf of a client, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account.

Once created, you cannot change your seller name or company name in iTunes Connect. For assistance with changing your company name or seller name, you will need to contact iTunes Connect through the Contact Us page.

We have generated the application using the proper profiles. Any idea as to when this issue is raised by Apple? We could not get any proper information about the reason and the way to resolve it. Does this have anything to do with the application name being similar to some other application named as "Secured" and out app name being Secured?

Poop answered 21/2, 2017 at 3:19 Comment(11)

It will be very helpful if someone from the community who faced such issue can let us know. – Poop 21/2, 2017 at 19:51

I am having the same issue today. Did you figure out a solution? – Pearson 27/2, 2017 at 13:40

I too am having the same issue today. Any solution? Note that to me, 'If you have developed these apps on behalf of a client, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account.' is not a solution. – Contributor 27/2, 2017 at 13:52

For us, we had to mention that we already own the registered trademark of the name of the application and the logo. We responded to this information in the Resolution Center. After 2 days, we found that they had approved the application. We did not even have to re-submit any new build. I think that we need to provide the information that the name that we are using is actually owned by the rightful owner, the one that is submitting the application. – Poop 27/2, 2017 at 15:30

You said: 'We responded to this information in the Resolution Center'. Do you mean where it says there 'reply'? – Florineflorio 27/2, 2017 at 15:36

@Florineflorio Yes. You put in the information in the textbox and click on the reply button. They will send the information to the Apple Review Team who is reviewing the application (I suppose). – Poop 27/2, 2017 at 15:41

@Soumya. I had the same problem today with my first app. I did the app for a small company, and they rejected it with the message like you got. I don't understand what I am supposed to do to get it accepted? Thanks so much for your help. – Florineflorio 27/2, 2017 at 15:42

Ok. i never knew about that. – Florineflorio 27/2, 2017 at 15:50

We're having the same issue. We host apps on our account for multiple clients who all sign up to use our service with a branded white label style app. We will need to set up and maintain over 50 separate accounts if we follow this. This hasn't been an issue until this month and we have been submitting apps and updates monthly for several years this way. – Courlan 3/4, 2017 at 14:51

This question is off-topic because it is about a business concern related to the App Store, not a coding issue. Please see Are developer-centric questions about application stores on topic for Stack Overflow? and Why we're not customer support for [your favorite company]? – Chamberlain 3/5, 2017 at 23:15

I was added financial institute name list in metadata since 2 years, Now latest version rejected. – Dichroscope 31/12, 2018 at 13:37

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You typically get this kind of rejection when you submit an app that has some known brand in the name of the app, icon, inside the app or in the metadata. For example, if your company is "Milkshakes Ltd." and you use "Nike" brand in the name of your app "Milkshakes - Nike Edition".

This typically happens when a company asks you - the developer - to create and app for them and you are trying to release the app under your developer account. But the app needs to be released under the company developer account (the company needs to enroll Apple Developer Program if it has not yet done so). That is why Apple advises the following:

If you have developed these apps on behalf of a client, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account.

Releasing apps under a different account is against Apple Developer Program License Agreement:

For the sake of clarity, You may authorize contractors to develop Applications on Your behalf, but any such Applications must be owned by You, submitted under Your own developer account, and distributed as Applications only as expressly permitted herein. You are responsible to Apple for Your contractors’ activities under Your account (e.g., adding them to Your team to perform development work for You) and their compliance with this Agreement. Any actions undertaken by Your contractors arising out of this Agreement shall be deemed to have been taken by You, and You (in addition to Your contractors) shall be responsible to Apple for all such actions.

However, based on your description, it does not look this is your case. I don't know about any well known "Secured" or "Safe" brands. You did not write your company name, there might be a conflict too. I would try to clarify the issue with Apple Review Team by responding to the issue in Resolution Center. They might point you to the brand you are in conflict with. Or it might have been rejected by a mistake.

Hemophilia answered 28/2, 2017 at 14:37 Comment(8)

I am getting same issue and I cant say client to add me in their Apple Developer account. Please tell me another solution. – Chigetai 15/3, 2017 at 11:27

Either the client adds you into their Developer account or you send them your source code or compiled archive and they submit it to the App Store themselves. – Hertahertberg 16/3, 2017 at 3:6

Thank you .but my client don't have Apple Developer Account. We always submit application from our Developer Account. – Chigetai 16/3, 2017 at 5:7

So either convince your client to enroll to Apple Developer Program or discuss the issue with Apple Review Team by responding to the issue in Resolution Center. – Hertahertberg 16/3, 2017 at 11:3

Running into this issue as well the thing is we build apps for clients but we retain all rights to the application, they don't own any part of it...do you know if this is a recent change to the Apple Developer Program Agreement, or do you know where I can find a history of the agreements and see what has changed over time? Haven't had any luck finding past agreements. – Waistband 20/3, 2017 at 13:36

How can Apple know about the brands? I mean, how can they know whether you own the brand "Secured" or not? – Superiority 3/4, 2017 at 12:49

Let's say As a developer I want to add the application under my apple developer account and not under my client's developer account and I ask my client to add my account as developer under their account. Is it possible.? In the end, I want to add this app under my developer account. – Redpoll 8/5, 2017 at 10:36

I am developing Government application and I have attached agreement of both parties during app submission through my developer account but app is rejected twice. One way I found is submitting app through client account, but this might not possible to make developer account of the every client, So please give me alternate solution for this as I can provide any document to the apple store. – Trinitroglycerin 6/7, 2018 at 5:51

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I found a comment in Apple Developer forum, and it works for me.

rajveer123 Mar 14, 2017 10:46 AM (in response to nikhileshrayapureddy)

Hi, I might be able to help on this. I just got my app approved and had the same reason. You need to make sure, that if your app is called XYZ and you are the owner 123, that 123 owns all copyright for the app and it's content within. If the content is third-party make sure you comment this in comments box. It's quite reasonable, as I might upload an app called Windows for iOS and do not even own the copyright for this brand. Also, make sure you write the correct name etc. in the copyright box, who owns the brand. It's not the app name, but the publisher or if you develop for someone, it's his company/client name. I don't think it's that complictaed with Apple, you just need to be straight forward. I hope this helps someone!

Link: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/73820

From the comment, I did as below:

In "Prepare for submission", scroll to Copyright area, copy your team name and paste it as Copyright of this application.
- Resubmit your application.

In my case, it took 2 days to get my application approved for sale in Apple store. Have your patience.

UPDATED: Now, apple allows us upload a certificate file to show their authentication of this app then we can use the our owner app name.

Palstave answered 5/4, 2017 at 3:12 Comment(7)

I wonder why they can't be a bit more direct like, "The copyright of your application says XYZ and not 'Linh Nguyen'.". – Hanover 8/4, 2017 at 18:48

@Josejulio: "Linh Nguyen" is only a member's name of an Apple Developer Account, not the name of Apple Developer Account. My post and my image is help you to clear the comment. – Palstave 10/4, 2017 at 4:58

I know, I used it as an example :). – Hanover 10/4, 2017 at 4:59

@ahmad: is your account is individual account. – Palstave 19/4, 2017 at 7:45

@Palstave it's a corporate account for a customer of ours. – Segno 30/4, 2017 at 12:3

@Palstave what if it is an individual account? I am having trouble uploading the app through my clients individual account. – Chetchetah 13/7, 2017 at 10:56

@abhi1992: for individual account, if you are developer/ceo/founder for this app and you can prove for Apple by website/paper or etc. Apple can accept that. – Palstave 14/7, 2017 at 8:8