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Apple Sued Over Rendezvous Trademark

Posted by pudge on from the i-sue-you-sue-we-all-sue dept.

bdsesq writes "The Register is reporting that Tibco is suing Apple over the name 'Rendezvous'. Tibco has owned the name since 1994. It seems that Apple doesn't want to pay what Tibco wants."

14 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Rendezvous? by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So can a company trademark single words in a foreign language? What do the French think of this? I'd think it'd be like trademarking a word such as "travel".

    --
    "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    1. Re:Rendezvous? by speechpoet · · Score: 4, Funny
      I suspect the French hold anyone in disdain who doesn't reserve the word "rendezvous" for one of the following meanings:
      • moonlit trysts on a Paris rooftop between a bitter nihilist revolutionary fugitive and his naive yet somehow worldly girlfriend, leading to their violent deaths in a bloody shootout with the gendarmes as their bullet-riddled bodies plunge into the Seine.
      • musketeers, fleeing Richelieu's spies, furtively exchanging the princess's ransom with a man they believe to be a lowly messenger but who reveals himself to be - mon dieu! est-ce que c'est possible? - the true king himself!
      • the moment when the melted chocolate merges with the whipped cream, freeing the aroma of the cognac and reminding the palate ever so delicately of the bitterness of the foie gras that began the meal, only 14 hours auparavant.
    2. Re:Rendezvous? by RazzleFrog · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's wrong. Microsoft lost the case because the phrase windows was already a common term in user interfaces BEFORE Microsoft received their trademark. It is similar to prior art with patents. You are very much allowed to trademark ordinary words. By it's very definition - "A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others (source: USPTO.

    3. Re:Rendezvous? by RazzleFrog · · Score: 4, Informative

      You really don't understand how trademarks work do you? You can trademark anything as it pertains to a particular specific business. Apple has a trademark and I think Apple is a pretty common word. So are Ford, Dodge, Gulf, Sears, Target, etc. Trademarks exist to help protect both the consumer and the company from confusion. The company doesn't have to worry about its rebutation being soiled by somebody selling a inferior product under their name and a consumer can be secure in knowing that if it has the name of the company then it belongs to that company.

    4. Re:Rendezvous? by chrispy666 · · Score: 4, Funny
      you forgot :

      my foot having a rendez-vous with your ass, sacrebleu.

      --
      Music is the language of the heart, the sound of the soul. -Joe Satriani
  2. Humph... seems obvious by Badge+17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The "Rendezvous" software of Tibco is messaging software. Apple's is networking configuration. There doesn't seem to be any real attempt of Apple to capitalize on Tibco's reputation (because, naturally, Apple is some upstart company trying to leech off of the mighty Tibco...).

    After all, wasn't this case sort of settled with the battle of Apple Records versus Apple Computer - there's not likely to be confusion in the products, and the Apple Records name had a hell of a lot more influence than Tibco does now.

    A couple more news stories on this, more reputable but not much more information:
    http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story=ON -20030828-000863-0816
    http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/new s/news_story.php?id=46737

    1. Re:Humph... seems obvious by Frightened_Turtle · · Score: 5, Informative

      "...but it does possess messaging components via iChat..."

      Actually, this is a little inaccurate. Rendezvous does not have messaging components. Nor does Rendezvous use iChat for messaging.

      Rather, it is iChat that uses Rendezvous services to discover who is on the network, and then lists those people accordingly. In a very basic summation, all Rendezvous does is check out a network and see what is available for networking, and then makes that information available for other programs to use.

      If Rendezvous does have user-to-user messaging capabilities built into it, then I would agree that Tibco has a case. Nonetheless, even if Tibco didn't want to, they would still be required to sue Apple based on current copyright/trademark laws. They must defend their trademark and demonstrate efforts of having done so. Not doing so invalidates their trademark and makes it available for everyone to use. (This is why you see McDonald's suing some small restaurant now and then over the "McDonald's name. They aren't trying to be mean, they have to do this or they lose their trademark.) Let's face it, if you're going to sue, you might as well ask for money. At the very least, it covers your legal fees if you win.

      It will probably go to court, unless Tibco is doing this to get free money. Should it go to court, the finding will most likely be that Tibco's product is a messaging system like iChat, and not a network discovery service like Apple's product, and therefore there is no market overlap between the two products. Thereby, there is no trademark infringement.

      At the very least, this is free press for Tibco -- this is the first time I ever heard of them.

      --


      Whew! This water sure is cold!
  3. No confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A major point of debate in trademark disagreements is confusion. Will Apple's use of Rendezvous be confusing to people who are familiar with TIBCO's use of Rendezvous? The answer is clearly no: TIBCO's Rendezvous is a messaging solution that's part of their enterprise blah-blah-ware system. Apple's Rendezvous is a network configuration and service advertisement technology. The only thing they have in common, and I mean this quite literally, is that they both involve computers.

    No case. Five gets you ten the case never goes to court.

    1. Re:No confusion by lightspawn · · Score: 4, Funny

      Will Apple's use of Rendezvous be confusing to people who are familiar with TIBCO's use of Rendezvous? The answer is clearly no: TIBCO's Rendezvous is a messaging solution that's part of their enterprise blah-blah-ware system. Apple's Rendezvous is a network configuration and service advertisement technology.

      As someone who's had to struggle with (Tibco) Rendezvous documentation, let me assure you that confusion is very likely even if you've never even heard of Apple's Rendezvous.

  4. Never Mind That by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The USPTO website shows 22 hits for the word 'RENDEZVOUS'

    The oldest being Mother's Cake & Cookies Co. (1966)

  5. Re: Apple Sued Over Rendezvous Trademark by justforaday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    maybe apple should just go back to calling it zeroconf. that sounds so much cooler anyways...

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  6. Simple solution by McAddress · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just rename it iRendezvous.

  7. Correction by Curt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Tibco has owned the name since 1994. It seems that Apple doesn't want to pay what Tibco wants."

    Actually, that should read Tibico claims to have been using the name since 1994. Not owns. It is not a registered trademark, they merely applied for it. The process is not complete. In fact, they only filed for it May 21, 2003.

    Tibico's Rendezvous

    Apple filed for the name Rendezvous on May 6, 2002.

    Apple's Rendezvous

    Do I think this will really be a problem for Apple? No more than OS-9 and Mac OS 9.... at least those were both Operating Systems, in some sense.

  8. Apple has done this before... by CptTripps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A few years back Apple decided to call their new internet service "iTools" a name that Tenon had a TM on for 2 years at that point. Apple's response? "We can both use it...they are different."

    I'm not sure if it was because of Tenon that Apple changed it to ".Mac" but it was a pretty shitty thing to do to Tenon. iTools is a great product.

    --


    My .sig can beat up your honor student.