I can tell it’s a billion dollar business, I launched a Meditation app two months ago, we had good retention and users were loving the app. Then the guy we hired to do the voice over disappeared with no explanation so we couldn’t fulfill our promise of “daily meditation” because the voice was not the same. 15 days later I understood why: We received a Cease and Desist from one of the companies behind the top meditation and mindfulness apps in the AppStore. They certainly don’t want anybody to enter that niche.
The cease and desist included, in addition to some screens they said we copied from their design, part of the scripts which I wasn't aware they copyrighted.
We didn't copy anything, the text from the meditation we took it from Shunryu Suzuki's book.
We hired him in a talent website, when I say he disappeared is because he was just unavailable to continue doing the voice over for us, he was not available for booking anymore. I suspect this company reached out to him, booked him heavily or something so he was not available for us.
My guess is that their voiceover guy had an exclusivity agreement with the other company.
He could live in a jurisdiction that enforces non-compete agreements, or he could have been currently employed by the competitor with a full-employment clause in it.
If I ever have more money then I know what to do with, I would love to bankroll some of these legal battles pro bono like Peter Thiel so that when someone sends a frivolous cease and desist they end up regretting it.
