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Red Hat Founder Offers Help in Apple vs.Tiger Lawsuit

Posted by Zonk on from the fun-with-trademark-law dept.

Art Vanderlay writes "Robert F. Young, a founder of Linux distributor Red Hat and now owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Canadian football team, has offered Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs a quick way out of a lawsuit by TigerDirect over the latest version of Tiger. According to the Globe and Mail, Mr. Young has offered to license the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' historical use of the word Tiger to Apple free of charge. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have been around since 1869. '136 years ago we were called The Tigers,' Mr. Young said. 'If anyone owns the exclusive rights to the word tiger with that much history and tradition, it's gotta be us.'"

15 of 517 comments (clear)

  1. From one hole to another? by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While the "free" license is a good gesture, it's also indirectly implying that Apple needs approval from other entities to trade, and that's the risk that shouldn't be ignored.

    What if this Tiger-Cats is bought by another business?

    And not to mention TigerDirect is more or less in the same trade (which determines the trademark's validity) as Apple, and sports is not yet computer hardware-related until robots start playing.

    If Apple wants to trade as 'Apple' exclusively in computer hardware, then it must be prepared that TigerDirect wants to trade as 'Tiger' exclusively.

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:From one hole to another? by KillerDeathRobot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Man, am I the only one that gets that this whole thing is a joke? It's obvious that this trademark would not help Apple at all. This whole thing is a joke pointing out how dumb Tiger Direct's suit is. As a bonus it gets Redhat some free PR.

      --
      Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
  2. Trademarks by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trademarking of common words is just... stupid.

    You can't have these kind of issues with a made-up name like Coca-Cola, right?

    Apple, Tiger, Windows, whats next? Imagination isn't a prerequisite anymore in marketing, it seems.

    --
    Eureka Science News - automatically updated
    1. Re:Trademarks by darthtrevino · · Score: 5, Funny
      The trademarks of the future must be universally unique! I propose we use guidgen.exe to generate future trademarks. Examples:

      {6E085F0D-9ACD-4317-A2EF-657F87B09A1C} Computers Inc.

      Mozilla Fire-{E252FE02-495C-499f-B63D-07D8FF2AC4D0} Web Browser!

      See there, guaranteed (virtually) to be unique from all other trademarks!!

    2. Re:Trademarks by s20451 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Don't laugh. If you incorporate a company in Canada and you don't want to bother with a name, the company is automatically assigned a number, along with the province in which it was incorporated (for example, 3617824 Nova Scotia Inc.). In fact, all companies must have unique names, so using the number avoids the fee you incur to check the database to make sure your name hasn't been taken.

      This is why, whenever you hear of shady dealings in Canada, often they have to do with "numbered companies" that are just empty shells that exist only for accounting games.

      As a cool riff on this, there is a trendy Italian restaurant in Toronto that the owners decided to name after the numbered company they set up to administer it: 1447582. Everybody just calls it "seven numbers".

      --
      Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
  3. The answer is obvious... by cmpkilla · · Score: 5, Funny

    change the name to Liger!

    --
    "Mind over matter: If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter"
  4. "Tiger-Cats"? by PaxTech · · Score: 5, Funny

    -1, Redundant.

    --
    All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
  5. Red Hat getting in on the PR by winkydink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing more.

    While Tiger Direct has a (if somewhat sleazy) case, there's little confusion between a football team and computer sw. This is just Red Hat attempting to cash in on the PR surrounding this while looking like a good guy.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  6. Young Doesn't understand trademark by LetterRip · · Score: 5, Informative

    Trademark is generally only relevant for trade done in a specific domain - so usage of Tiger for a football franchise won't disallow another company to use football as a software reseller.

    Where Apple potentially gets in trouble is that there is a company that is a software reseller that is doing business under the trademark of Tiger. Whether Apples line of business and Tiger Direct are closely enough related that the courts would disallow Apples usage of the trademark is unclear.

    LetterRip

  7. Re:From TFA by Holi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Has anyone tracked down this mysterious registration, or is TigerDirect merely claiming that their use of the mark precedes Apple's?

    Actually it is TigerDirect's parent company Systemax that has the trademark registered, see here:
    http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=c fhosb.2.21.

    --
    Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  8. hmph by namekuseijin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    if such companies are so eager to preserve a stupid trademark, why don't they do something to preserve their symbol: the tiger? He's in the brink of extinction, ya know?

    --
    I don't feel like it...
  9. Actually Apple does have legal issues with Apple by Glasswire · · Score: 5, Informative

    In fact, Apple got in trouble in the 70s when they first used the word and had to agree that Apple (computer company) would not get into the business of Apple ( music company). Of course, Apple (music company) cried foul recently over iTunes....
    So, you can see cross-industry trademarks DO have to be negotiated.

  10. Re:It won't work... by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If Apple would have added more to the name like TigerMAC, then I think they would have a better chance.
    What, something like "Mac OS X Tiger"?
    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  11. Tiger Woods by RetepMc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reminds me of when Tiger Woods tried to stop a golf course from using its name "Tiger's Eye", which it was named way before Tiger Woods became Tiger Woods. He obviously lost, but he did manage to get Nike to remove all of it's products from the Pro Shop!

    --
    PtPete
  12. Re:Oh hells yeah by daviddennis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But they are successful!

    It can't be a coincidence that about the time the lawsuit broke, I suddenly found Tiger Direct ads appearing on Slashdot. In fact, as I write this, there is one sitting happily on top of my screen. They are attempting to take advantage of the free publicity which was the true purpose of the suit.

    You might be interested in the documents in the lawsuit. It doesn't strike me as a well-argued suit and I'm confident it will fail.

    But a lot more people have heard of Tiger Direct now than then, and they might get some sympathy as the "underdog". Unfortunately about 90% of them are Mac users and Tiger doesn't deal with Macs at all. So I doubt it will be the windfall Tiger would like to see.

    Of course the story we've responded to also has the same purpose. I laughed out loud when I read it, so it's okay by me. But this story was meant to provide publicity for the team and Bob Young.

    And it has :-).

    D