There is a lot of misinformation about the situation here, mainly because of the misleading title. The game created by the Chinese company is not a clone of the game created by Playsaurus.
The games look nothing alike. The dispute is about the title of the game "Clicker Heroes", specifically the Chinese translation of this title "点击英雄". A Chinese company created a game with this (rather generic) name and filed a trademark for the name.
The company was granted the trademark because they were first to file for the trademark and China trademark law works on a first-to-file basis. The same law applies in many countries (including countries in the EU). Playsaurus made a mistake not filing for the trademark in China before and was punished for that mistake.
The actual controversy here has nothing to do with Chinese law or the Chinese company. The controversy is that Apple took down the game in all regions despite them only violating the trademark in China.
It's correct to say that the Chinese game is more directly a reskinned clone of Tap Titans, but Tap Titans itself began as a gameplay clone of Clicker Heroes. The visual layout is different but my understanding is the gameplay was virtually identical, at least at launch.
It makes sense that a Chinese mobile game company wanting to quickly clone and profit from the success of Clicker Heroes in 2015 would end up reskinning Tap Titans because Tap Titans was a Clicker Heroes clone that was available on mobile even while Clicker Heroes itself was still only available on PC.
It seems clear the Chinese company realized the connection between Tap Titans and Clicker Heroes, which is why they chose to steal the name Clicker Heroes for their clone of a clone.
Woah woah woah. I get it not everyone is an expert on this subject, but what makes you say it's not a clone? It looks pretty similar to me. Clicker Heros is a well known game in this genre. One look, and you would know immediately "this is a clone of Clicker Heros". Lots of games copy it, piecemeal or whole horse.
Maybe that's irrelevant and maybe not. But I don't think you can simply dismiss it.
You should update your comment to include the original Clicker Heroes by Playsaurus. What you've presently linked to is the sequel, which is radically different in terms of both look and gameplay.
Something isn't adding up with the devs explanation of the situation. He claims they have trademarks for Clicker Heroes in US and EU, so why would Apple be removing the game worldwide.
Here is the game created by Playsaurus: http://www.clickerheroes2.com
Here is the game created by the Chinese company: http://m.7k7k.com/android/11525.html
The games look nothing alike. The dispute is about the title of the game "Clicker Heroes", specifically the Chinese translation of this title "点击英雄". A Chinese company created a game with this (rather generic) name and filed a trademark for the name.
The company was granted the trademark because they were first to file for the trademark and China trademark law works on a first-to-file basis. The same law applies in many countries (including countries in the EU). Playsaurus made a mistake not filing for the trademark in China before and was punished for that mistake.
The actual controversy here has nothing to do with Chinese law or the Chinese company. The controversy is that Apple took down the game in all regions despite them only violating the trademark in China.