Take heed, brave young iPhone app developers. If ye have a lust fer writin' iPhone apps that involve falling blocks—beware. The Tetris Company never sleeps, and the blood-red eyes in the back of its head can peer into the darkest depths of your soul! If you don't believe us, just ask the developers at Phunkware, the monster's latest victims.

A Tetris clone with an alcoholic twist called Shaker has been pulled from the iTunes App Store for being "too much like Tetris," according to TUAW. While Shaker had a few unique features, such as a choice among different block styles, accelerometer support for shaking to change block orientation, and martini recipes for good scores, the Tetris Company apparently felt the game still came a bit too close to its intellectual property.

Shaker is not the first Tetris clone to suffer Apple's axe post-publishing. Back in August, another clone called Tris fell to the same fate. If it's any comfort, though, the iPhone isn't the only platform getting picked on. Back in July, Hasbro Inc. targeted a Facebook game called Scrabulous, a very popular clone of Scrabble that had over half a million daily users before the courts inspired Facebook to pull the plug.

It is certainly unfortunate that clones like Shaker are getting picked on by IP owners, especially when, in the case of Tris, the official version is so terrible by comparison. The ambiguously locked-down aspect of the iTunes App Store notwithstanding, one thing is becoming abundantly clear: the heightened exposure that the store provides to developers and the buzz around the iPhone platform overall are bringing IP owners out in force. While the blood-red eyes in the back of the Tetris Company's head may indeed be only a myth, the lesson is still very real: iPhone app developers who are planning on cloning a popular game that is owned by major publisher should beware.