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Fujitsu Readies Lawsuit Over "iPad" Name

Posted by timothy on from the walt-disney's-lesson dept.

gyrogeerloose writes "In an event eerily reminiscent of Cisco's suit over Apple's use of the 'iPhone' name, Japanese firm Fujitsu is consulting its attorneys in preparation for going to court over Apple's use of 'iPad' for its latest computing device. Quoted in a New York Times story, Masahiro Yamane, director of Fujitsu's public relations division, said 'It's our understanding that the name is ours.' Fujitsu's application to trademark the iPad name stalled because of an earlier filing by another company and the US Patent and Trademark Office listed Fujitsu's application as abandoned in early 2009, but the company revived its application in June. Apple, which has applied for an international trademark on 'iPad' through a proxy company, has filed a number of requests with the US Patent Office for more time to oppose Fujitsu's application."

14 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. Am I the only one? by __aagmrb7289 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Am I the only person who sees this as an excellent opportunity for Apple to ditch the unfortunate moniker and go with something like iSlate? I mean, they can even deliver a bunch of moralizing over the thing. And yes, it'll cost them - but it's going to cost them to keep the iPad too - people are making more fun of the name then they are paying attention to the shiny lights of the product.

    1. Re:Am I the only one? by CorporateSuit · · Score: 2, Interesting

      After Nintendo's success with the Wii, I'm not surprised they would go for such an embarrassing name for their product. I'm just nervous about where the future is taking us.

      --
      I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
    2. Re:Am I the only one? by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's true, but I think a good name can get people to talk about it just as much as a making fun of a bad name. Remember squirting songs at each other using your Zune? Arguably, people who failed to see the benefits of squirting at each other did so not because of the name, but because the feature itself was pretty much crippled and you had a hard time finding other zune owners to with which to squirt. I don't think it helped their case to build mind-share however that doing a google search for squirting reveals some results that aren't completely safe for work. It crossed the line between making fun of it over to something you wouldn't really feel comfortable describing to your mother. I think a better name would have done just as well, e.g. people talked quite a bit about the kindle but weren't making fun of it.

      --
      Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
  2. Re:welp by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ipad as a name is about as bad as it can get for apple, due to all the jokes and the SNL skit. Is itablet also trademarked?

    It's actually a MAD TV Skit

    ...And a fine example of how dreadfully unfunny Mad TV was, too. Still, they get bonus points for the fact that Apple used the name.

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  3. Re:iFlatThingWithoutAKeyboard by rev_sanchez · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If the little iPod is the nano (1 billionth) then this new big one should be: iPod Giga.

    --
    If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
  4. Re:iPadMax by repetty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    iPad is a great name.

    But we don't have to debate it... in two years we'll know for sure. I think that everyone will have forgotten all about sanitary napkins reference by then.

    Even if you remember the whole iPad/Maxi-Pad thing, when you bring it up everyone around you will tell you how you're getting old.

    Two years is an awfully long time, nowadays.

  5. On Lawsuits by ALeader71 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You can always tell a company's relevance by the lawsuits they file.

    There's this one.
    Microsoft vs TomTom over FAT
    Apple vs Microsoft over the use of a GUI. Not their finest moment, foretold years of problems for Apple.

    I could go on, but slashdot readers know the score.

    --
    Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
  6. Re:welp by GIL_Dude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You know, I am sure they will claim that the play is on the "iPod" name. However, I think that they are really going for the iPADD name (PADD as in Personal Access Data Display from Star Trek http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD). They can't make it too obvious I guess because Paramount would sue them. But when I see a slate form factor machine like this I immediately think PADD.

  7. Re:iWhale maybe? by Terrasque · · Score: 2, Interesting

    iMoby - and I'm half serious about that suggestion..

    http://www.computer-dictionary-online.org/moby.htm?q=moby

    Would probably be too hard to grok for the plebs, though

    --
    It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
  8. Re:welp by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think you're missing some context here. The Twitter feed I was reading was among writers and web comic artists on how to use the iPad for creating and/or displaying content. For writers, the iPad is in the same ballgame as the Kindle for ebooks and what that means for publishing as a whole. For the web comic artists, being able to present their archives or create a 24-page comic in near full-sized and color is absolutely amazing. I'm looking at the iPad as a portable writing device and a platform to develop apps since I was never enchanted with the iPhone/Touch.

    What Apple does very well - beside fleecing the masses of their hard earned money - is enabling artists and programmers to create content. That content is what feeds the need for every new generation of Apple hardware.

  9. Re:welp by Nakor+BlueRider · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ipad as a name is about as bad as it can get for apple, due to all the jokes and the SNL skit. Is itablet also trademarked?

    If you think about it, people said the same thing about the Wii, but the extra publicity only helped out Nintendo.

  10. Re:Double trademark trolls! by mdwh2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they use such a trivial and obvious naming scheme, that's their own fault.

    And this is a good thing for trademarks to work this way. We allow existing words, and trivial variations of them, to be trademarks, but it is good to have a deterrent against companies doing this in such a broad and systematic matter.

  11. A tech-savy luddite by TapeCutter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find myself agreeing with you and the post you were replying to. Personally, I don't use twitter, in fact I haven't had a mobile phone for the last 5yrs by choice and I have never been interested in having a personal web page. Not having a mobile phone tends to piss other people off much more than it inconviences me. I enjoy walking out the front door and being "offline", possibly because I'm an old fart and that's just the way the world was up until I was in my 30's.

    I'm a software engineer with a CS degree and a head full of geeky science trivia. My adult kids think I'm a bit of a paradox, a tech-savy luddite one might say.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  12. Re:Double trademark trolls! by drkim · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Come to think of it...

    The use of 'Apple' by Apple Computer was first challenged as trademark infringement by the Beatles 'Apple Corps' back in 1978.

    They finally allowed Apple Computer to use it for a cash payoff and a promise that Apple Computer would never get into the music distribution business... something that Apple Computer has never...DOH!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer