We are creating new App - the name of which is a registered trademark. When we try to create the new App in the developer program, we are notified that the 'name is already in use'. There are two issues:
1) Searching for this in-use App using our name returns no results (the name is HelloMD)
2) We have a registered trademark on 'HelloMD' so if someone is using that for the name of their App - they should not be.
What can we do about this?
You will probably need to contact the App Store Submission team with this issue. You can find their contact through itunes connect. One possibility of searching for the app and it not appearing in the app store is that the app has not been released yet. It could be that a developer registered an app to have it released and is still in the process of developing the app or does not plan on releasing the application.
When another app is using a trademark of yours, you should use the content dispute form to initiate a discussion with Apple Legal.
http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/itunesstorenotices/
When you list the app that is offending, then Apple will write an email to the breaching party, which helps speed the discussion. However, in my experience, they will not do much more than that. They'd rather the two parties work things out.
Also, if you do find out the contact information of the breaching party, here's some advice about to handle it. Do not write to them yourself. Hire a lawyer to send a cease and desist notice. In my experience, when developers talk with developers about trademark law, it ends up being a debate. Especially when the discussions span country borders.
Steve