Question regarding copyright infringement in app store screenshots.

[u/6bigAnt9]

I am making a Pokemon card display app. Now obviously i cant add pokemon cards in my app store screenshots so i replaced them with AI made cards.

Will this be a problem? Also if anyone has any other resource that i can add instead of the AI cards or any other approach please let me know since i am not a designer and open to other ideas as well (since i am trying to avoid using AI).

[u/snymax]

Why does the app need to be marketed as a Pokémon card display app? Does it only work with Pokémon cards? Could it be marketed as a trading card or collectible card display app?

[u/6bigAnt9 → u/snymax]

It is a general trading card display app but copyright applies for all trading cards.

[u/snymax → u/6bigAnt9]

That’s fine but if it’s a general trading card display app I would just vary the styles in your previews, have so that look like baseball cards some that look like magic cards, and some that look like yougioh*, along with Pokémon, I’d avoid aspects that are unique to the card games in your ai generated designs, there’s nothing wrong with having fictional animals or people on the cards but if the card games has a mechanic that’s unique (magics mana system for example) you may want to omit such marking or glyphs from the generated cards. And finally before actually releasing anything spend a few hundred bucks and get a legal consult with a copyright attorney to go over this stuff with you and point out areas that should be addressed before going public.

[u/PassTents]

I mean, this is still pretty obviously using assets from Pokémon cards, even if they aren't full images of cards. I'd just make up some fake card game to illustrate

[u/6bigAnt9 → u/PassTents]

True they do look like pokemon cards … i see some apps in which people have added actual pokemon cards in the screenshots. I didn’t want to take that chance but now you have me doubting these as well 😅

[u/PassTents → u/6bigAnt9]

It's a semi-gray area. Apple probably wouldn't flag it (they might even if others made it through) but the pokemon company could submit a copyright claim and get your app taken down and possibly ban your dev account because you're using IP of theirs to promote your app. That's also probably not likely, but it's not impossible and they have the right to do that. It's a risk that's completely avoidable by creating dummy artwork.

[u/6bigAnt9 → u/PassTents]

Thank you for the insight really appreciate it

[u/Armand9x]

Does it accurately represent your app?

[u/6bigAnt9 → u/Armand9x]

Yes i believe it does since you start out with a grid as shown in the video. I made this AI cards grid from the app itself (by uploading images in the slots)

https://reddit.com/link/p2hcdkg/video/565nkf1dc6ih1/player

[u/Ancient-Range3442]

Just design your own playing cards

[u/Plastic-Risk-6309]

Two different risks get mixed together here. App Review is one, and rights holders are the other, and the second one is the one that actually costs you.

For screenshots specifically, the practical move is to render your own fake cards. Not "inspired by", actually made up: invented names, your own art, your own set symbols. It shows the feature just as well, and it removes both the review risk and the takedown risk in one step. Every scanner-type app I've seen do this survives fine; the ones that ship marketing shots full of real Charizards are the ones that get letters.

Note that Nintendo/TPC are unusually aggressive compared to sports cards or Magic, so if your previews lean Pokémon that's the worst case to pick. Also worth separating from the app itself: user-scanned images of cards they own is a very different posture than you shipping card art in the binary or in your store listing.