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Apple Loses Aussie Trademark Complaint Over "i" Name
CuteSteveJobs writes "Apple has been dealt a severe blow having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter 'i' for product naming. IP Australia, the government body that oversees trademark applications, rejected Apple's complaint against a company selling 'DOPi' laptop bags. Last year Australian computer company Macpro Computers claimed that after 26 years of flying its own Macpro brand that Apple was 'trying to burn us out' with legal fees. This was after Apple released its own Macpro line 3½ years ago. Apple lost that complaint, but is appealing. Last year Apple went after supermarket Woolworths complaining their new logo which featured a 'W' fashioned into the shape of an apple. (Woolworths sells real apples.)"
This post has been taken to court by Apple due to violations regarding the iFirst.
...but if Apple was as big as Microsoft is now and had the same legal attitude, the legal climate in computing would look even far worse than it does now.
The local grocery store in Silicon Valley has four organic apples in a hermetically sealed plastic box with a sticker on top to win a real skateboard for $3 USD. This is something that Steve Jobs would've come up with, although the skateboard would've been Steve Wozniak's idea.
They told the Australian court that the country would have to change its name to Australya.
It seems clear, avoiding the anti-Apple stance of the article and the summary, that Apple went after someone for infringing on "iPod", which is "DOPi" backwards. They didn't go after them for using iSomething. This looked like an infringement of their existing trademark, but they didn't win.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
when the ruling was headlined iDon'tThinkSo.
and said "iTold you so".
Ugh, I just died a little inside (Pun Allergy).
First AFACT (Australia's RIAA) lose and courts clearly state that ISP's are not responsible for policing their users now they have the audacity to claim Apple has no right to destroy other companies over vague allusions to product names or names they have been using for 20 years.
Preposterous I say, this simply cannot stand, as an Australian I demand that our legal system be fixed so that innocent mega-corporations can no longer be inconvenienced by our clearly erroneous laws.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Apple didn't invent the 'i' concept anyways. The 'i' comes from "Internet" because we called it the "iNet" back in the BBS days.
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
There's an app for that.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
If I had an international trademark and $35 billion in cash and short term investments, I would sue people even if I knew I would lose.
And I would call you an asshole who's abusing the system, and costing other people the money that they take home to feed their families and pay rent.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Powered by 26 letters, and therefore a maximum of 26 companies.
Frank Herbert, the author of "Dune" wrote a couple of novels set in a universe where lawyers who chose to fight a case literally had to fight it...and die if they lost. "Whipping Star" was one of them.
I think he was onto something. I, for one, would pay big money to see lawyers die.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
IF anyone has a right to complain, it's the Zulus. In kwaZulu (their language), an i- is prefixed to any loan word, and the following word is then capitalized. So radio in kwaZulu would be: iRadio. Looks familiar?
In a severe blow to food naming conventions Mother Nature has lost her bid to retain the name "Apple" for the fruit of the same name. In a compromise Apple is allowing Mother Nature to have their unused trademark iSlate for all apple type fruits. This is seen as a victory for the US and Mom's iSlate pie!
On that I have to disagree. The approach is short-sighted as there is at least one other cost you are not considering -- "good will." Apple is burning its public image with these sorts of abusive legal actions.
When talking of trademarks, the Australian Woothworths company actually had absolutely nothing to do with the FW Woolworth company and its famous US and UK stores (and apparently stores in other countries that are still trading under the Woolworths brand). One of the founders of the Australian company, Ernest Robert Williams, called the company Woolworths as part of a dare, only to find that FW Woolworth had not trademarked the name in Australia, therefore the trademark was deemed valid.
This highlight the issue of trademarks. Even in a globalised society, a company cannot expect by implication that its trademark will automatically be protected across the world, without registering the trademark correctly. If it were, could Volkswagen sue Apple for the use of the "i" letter since the company first used the designation on the Golf GTi in 1975?
Perhaps somebody could trademark the word iDIOT, to prevent situations like this from occurring.
The 'W' logo mentioned in the summary is used primarily for the supermarkets - the electrical / tech stores are branded differently eg: 'Dick Smiths' and 'Tandy', not 'Dick Smiths a subsidiary of Woolworths'.
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
iLitigiousBastards
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
... iLaughed.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Microsoft has for years burned good will, buried it, danced on it's grave and then salted the earth where it used to grow and they are still the biggest software company around.
I totally agree with your statement, but IMHO the most important word here is STILL. One of these days, M$ will slip, and then they'll need all the good will they dilapidated. In the future, people will be making lists like this "Ashton Tate, WordPerfect, SCO... Microsoft...". They have been stretching the rubber band for 40 years, You don't need to be Nostradamus to see what's coming.
As for Apple, Google and the rest, yes, they'll probably end also being part of that list.
Whatever happened to Apple being the goodguys? They had this image of being friendly and having a great product, but ever since they released the iPod its like it was the catalyst that turned them to the darkside.
Trust me on this one, it was just image. I knew Apple from back in the Apple I days, and Jobs was a dick even then, a hopped up salesman at best. Wozniak I respected ... to have designed and prototyped the Apple ][, Monitor ROM and floppy disk controller at his age was remarkable. Close to genius-level work, I'd say.
For all its flaws and warts (and it has many) Microsoft has put forth more effort to support its customers over the years than Apple ever has. I agree with you, they've seemed like bigger dicks since the iPod came out, but probably having to deal with the music industry has just amplified their existing negative vibes.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Apple is iEvil.