The copyright field in App Store Connect looks trivial until a metadata rejection points at it. The format Apple expects is simple and specific: the year the rights were obtained, followed by the name of whoever owns the app, and nothing else. No URL, no marketing line. Here is exactly what to enter and the small mistakes that hold up review. It takes under a minute to get right once you know the format.
Short answer
The App Store Connect copyright field takes the year the rights were obtained followed by the name of the person or entity that owns the app, for example "2026 Acme Inc." or "2026 Jane Developer." Per Apple's guidance, do not include a URL, and keep it under 170 characters. The copyright symbol is not required. It is a mandatory metadata field, and a malformed entry can draw a metadata rejection. Because it is metadata, you can fix it without uploading a new build, by editing the field and resubmitting.
What you should know
- Format is year then owner: the year the rights were obtained, followed by the owner's name.
- No URL: Apple specifically says not to provide a URL in this field.
- The symbol is optional: you do not need to add the copyright symbol.
- It is required: the field is mandatory and limited to 170 characters.
- It is metadata: you can correct it without a new build, then resubmit.
What goes in the copyright field?
The year and the rights holder. Apple asks for the name of the person or entity that owns the exclusive rights to the app, preceded by the year those rights were obtained, with "2008 Acme Inc." as the canonical example. So a company enters its legal name with the year, and an individual developer enters their own name with the year. The field is about ownership, not branding, so it should name the actual rights holder rather than a product name or a tagline. That is the whole content: a year and an owner. Keeping it minimal is the point, because the field is a legal attribution, so anything beyond the year and the rights holder is noise that can only cause problems, and the cleanest entries are the shortest ones.
What format does Apple expect?
Year first, owner second, nothing extra. The table shows valid entries and common invalid ones.
| Entry | Valid? |
|---|---|
| 2026 Acme Inc. | Yes |
| 2026 Jane Developer | Yes |
| 2026 Acme Inc. | Yes, with the copyright symbol optional and not required |
| 2026 | No, the owner is missing |
| Acme Inc. | No, the year is missing |
| 2026 Acme Inc. www.acme.com | No, do not include a URL |
The pattern to remember is year, then name. Adding a URL, a slogan, or leaving out either the year or the owner are the entries that get flagged. If you localize your app into multiple languages, the copyright field can be set per localization, so make sure each one follows the same year-and-owner format rather than only fixing the primary language.
Which year and which name do you use?
The year the rights were obtained, and the legal owner. For most apps the year is simply when you created or first published the app, and you can update it on a later version if it makes sense, though it is not required to bump it every year. The name is whoever holds the rights: your company's registered name if a company owns the app, or your own name if you do as an individual. If ownership is shared or licensed, name the entity that actually holds the rights, since this is the same ownership Apple expects to be consistent with your developer account and the app's intellectual property. A mismatch between the named owner here and the entity on your developer account is worth avoiding, because consistent ownership across the listing supports the intellectual-property checks Apple applies elsewhere.
What mistakes cause a metadata rejection?
A few small ones. Putting a URL in the field is the most common, because Apple explicitly disallows it. Leaving out the year or the owner, entering only a product name or a marketing phrase, or exceeding the character limit are the others. These are metadata issues, so they surface as a metadata rejection rather than a binary problem, and they are quick to fix. Reading the rejection message helps, because a metadata rejection usually names the exact field, so you can confirm it is the copyright entry rather than guessing which field Apple flagged. The reason they matter is that a metadata rejection still costs you a review cycle, so getting the field right the first time keeps the submission moving.
What to watch out for
The first trap is treating the field as branding and dropping in a tagline or a website, when it is strictly the year and the rights owner. The second is forgetting that it is editable metadata: a copyright issue does not require a new build, so you correct the field and resubmit rather than rebuilding. This field is metadata and has nothing to do with the security of your app, so it sits apart from a pre-submission scan; a scan such as PTKD.com (https://ptkd.com) reads the compiled binary against OWASP MASVS for the security side, while the copyright field is a quick metadata fix in App Store Connect.
What to take away
- The copyright field is the year the rights were obtained followed by the owner's name, such as "2026 Acme Inc."
- Do not include a URL, keep it under 170 characters, and the copyright symbol is optional.
- Name the actual rights holder, a company or an individual, not a product name or a slogan.
- It is editable metadata, so fix a copyright error and resubmit without a new build, separate from the binary checks a pre-submission scan such as PTKD.com performs.
