Apple Sued Over Use of iCloud Name 394
tekgoblin writes "iCloud Communications is suing Apple for the use of the iCloud name which they have the rights to. According to the lawsuit: 'The goods and services with which Apple intends to use the “iCloud” mark are identical to or closely related to the goods and services that have been offered by iCloud Communications under the iCloud Marks since its formation in 2005. However, due to the worldwide media coverage given to and generated by Apple’s announcement of its “iCloud” services and the ensuing saturation advertising campaign pursued by Apple, the media and the general public have quickly come to associate the mark “iCloud” with Apple, rather than iCloud Communications.'"
Before you answer (Score:5, Insightful)
please also consider what you would have said if Apple had been selling a product for the last 5-6 years, and somebody now came along and bought a website, and claimed that it now owned that trademark.
The analogue is in somebody buying ipad.com (which AFAIK Apple doesn't own). Just because Apple bought icloud.com doesn't give them a trademark, otherwise the trademark system should just be shut down in favor of the domain name system.
Re:The fools... (Score:4, Insightful)
That'd be fun. Sesame Street as prior art!
Recognized or not... (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope Apple gets spanked for this. It was their lack of due diligence, and even if Apple was aware of this other company, it chose to engage this "Imma show you whose boss" mentality. Apple decided to play the game, so too damn bad if they lose.
Re:But do they have a case ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Simon
Re:How did they not know? (Score:5, Insightful)
The only currently registered trademark is this one. http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4007:67i706.2.13 [uspto.gov]
It seems that iCloud Communications did not register the trademark.
Apple has 100 applications in to the USPTO right now for iCloud
Re:USPTO (Score:5, Insightful)
Failure to file for a trademark will doom you in court 9 times out of 10, particularly if it can be shown your trademark already overlapped in the market in question. Which in this case it seems to have overlapped with multiple players. oops.
This isn't about a local company using a name for 30 years and having a national, or multination company move in.
Taking over a name with force != right (Score:4, Insightful)
Legality aside, you would think that if they had been using a name legally for 6 years, they have a right to keep using it.
Something is broken if a larger company can buy a trademark of a smaller company and claim ownership and prevent the smaller company from using it.
Of course the legal system is not designed for common courtesy or justice, it's for rent seeking legal professionals.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:My First English to Fanboi-speak Phrasebook (Score:4, Insightful)
Android is an operating system. iOS is an operating system. What's the problem of comparing the number of devices that are sold with each operating system installed?
In a capitalist society, a product that is "too expensive" if it doesn't sell. The iPad sells well. By definition, it isn't too expensive.
Re:My First English to Fanboi-speak Phrasebook (Score:1, Insightful)
And we'll add some Apple bashing translation:
Apple does something bad:
Bashspeak: See! Apple is evil! It's proof!
Apple does something positive:
Bashspeak: Apple clearly has an ulterior motive, here's some cynical, paranoid ranting about how this is really something evil!
Apple releases changes back into GPL projects:
Bashspeak: Apple is *legally obliged* to do that! They wouldn't do it otherwise! They hate everything to do with open source!
Apple open sources its own projects like libdispatch, calendar/addressbook server etc etc:
Bashspeak: Those are not important! No one uses those!
Apple prices iPad less than any Android tablet of equal spec:
Bashspeak: The iPad is still too expensive (even though it is several hundred dollars cheaper than we were all saying it would be on release)! It's only less than the Android tablets because Apple uses anti-competitve practices to price other multinational giants like Samsung out of the market! It's definitely not because that's what a tablet costs, definitely not!
Apple throws its weight behind developers being targeted by patent troll:
Bashspeak: It's Apple's fault for forcing developers to use technologies that could be attacked by patent trolls! Apple are evil!
Apple point out that antenna attenuation is not limited to the iPhone 4, but it just worse due to the design of the loop antenna:
Bashspeak: Apple are just trying to make other manufacturers look bad!
Apple offers free bumpers to all iPhone customers that cures the problem:
Bashspeak: Nothing less that taking back *all* the iPhones and redesigning them completely will put this heinous injustice right! It doesn't matter that 95% of iPhone 4 users are not having any problems but welcomed the free case.
Apple include a non-truncated, non-specific hotspot and tower tracking log that demonstrably does not track your precise movements in real time:
Bashspeak: Apple is tracking your exact movements in realtime!
Android phones do identical thing and also *send that data to Google* (which Apple's phones do not do [although it says it is possible in the ToS, Apple has not collected this data so far]):
Bashspeak: Oh, that's totally fine. Android is *open*. You can opt out! (like you can on iOS too, but hey, facts are inconvenient!)
Apple runs a walled garden on iOS:
Bashspeak: That's slavery! Apple rents the phone to you! You do not own your device!
Android apps start to feature malware:
Bashspeak: Well, duh! That's what happens when you sideload apps! If you want guaranteed malware free just use the Android Market [ie, the walled garden]
Android apps *in the market* start to feature malware:
Bashspeak: Well duh! It should be obvious that these are not the legit apps! Just copies with malware added in! Absolutely no issue! No threat, this is a non-story designed to trash Android!
Apple has minor malware issue with a single easy-to kill trojan that requires full user duping to install:
Bashspeak: Apple has a malware explosion! Now we see clear proof just how much of a swiss cheese security nightmare OS X is after over 10 years of no attacks! It was entirely down to obscurity! Not a single hacker in the history of the internet was interested in compromising OS X until now!
Android starts sending SMS messages to the wrong people:
Bashspeak: I have not seen this problem, therefore it's not an issue (seriously, I saw this from multiple people. the panic damage control was hilarious)
Hacker releases code to "brute force" the 4 digit passcose on iPhone:
Bashspeak: See! iPhones are so insecure!
Android outsells iPhone in a single quarter just before the release of the iPhone 4 when iPhone 3GS sales were way down, and simultaneously during a Verizon 2 for 1 giveaway on Android handsets that counted double for each new customer:
Bashspeak: Ha! see! Android is killing iOS! Open will always win!
Users point out the unusual circumstances that have depressed iPhone numbers and swelle
Re:Recognized or not... (Score:4, Insightful)
Expected topics ITT (Score:3, Insightful)
Naivete about trademarks [check] (A trademark need not be registered to be enforceable, just clearly marked)
Apple fanbois saying that apple can do no wrong [check]
Apple anti-fanbois saying apple can do no right [check]
GNUtards expressing blanket anti-IP sentiments [check]
My take:
Apple is clearly not a historical good player, where it comes to the blatant co-opting of trademarks, case in point: OS9 vice MacOS9 (OS9 is a trademark of microware for a TRS-80C operating system, built for the 6809 chipset), the iphone/ios thing (the only reason any settlement at all was proposed was IOS was so entrenched that Apple was guaranteed a court loss), and many other trademarks Apple just steamrolled without checking. I suspect they didn't do due diligence at all, just because it seems that they never have before. I submit that the first "look and feel" lawsuits that Apple started were naught but an extension of this, given that the look and feel that apple was litigating was actually developed by Xerox at PARC, which both Microsoft and Apple liberally ripped off. While I doubt iCloud was much more than a shell company built as a IP landmine, Apple has yet to prove that their due diligence is much more than asking around the offices at Cupertino if anyone's ever heard of a given name. I predict that unless iCloud finds some deep pockets (I heard that there's a few deep pockets around that don't like Apple, some in Redmond), Apple will just keep raising the ante until iCloud's basically forced to settle.