Australian Trademark Tribunal Tells Apple That It Can't Stop Other Products From Using The Letter 'i'

from the imorons-in-ihurry dept

Fri, Mar 12th 2010 11:16am — Mike Masnick

Late last year we noticed that Apple seemed to be getting needlessly (and at times ridiculously) aggressive over its trademarks in Australia. There was the software developer who had a product named iPodRip, which had been around for years, which Steve Jobs suddenly decided needed to change its name. When the developer pleaded directly to Jobs, Jobs replied "Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal," which is amusing since the Beatles once tried to force Jobs to change the name of Apple -- and to him it was a big deal. Then there's the lawsuit against Macpro, a company that's been in business for 26 years -- since before Apple even had Macintosh as a product. And, finally, there's Apple's decision to fight Woolworth's in Australia (and New Zealand) because its logo looks sorta like an apple, though absolutely nothing like Apple's apple logo.

While some of those disputes are ongoing, Apple has now lost a different trademark claim, while also being smacked down for thinking that just because a product has the letter "i" it means it violates an Apple trademark. In this case, it wasn't even the first letter of the product -- which was DOPi. Admittedly, this is iPod backwards, but no moron in a hurry -- which, I should note, was the legal standard that Apple's own lawyers brought back into vogue a few years ago -- is going to look at a product called DOPi and confuse it with an official Apple product.

And it wasn't like the folks on the tribunal just don't like Apple. The head guy is apparently a fan, but finds it ridiculous that Apple seems to think anything with an "i" is infringing:

In the tribunal hearing, IP Australia, the government body that oversees trademark applications, said Apple overlooked the fact that there were already a large number of products that have the "i" prefix, for example iSkin and iSoft to name just two, all of which are operating in the same class of electronic goods as Apple.

The registrar overseeing the case Michael Kirov, who confessed to being a tech head and a fan of Apple's products, judged that Apple failed to demonstrate that a "person of ordinary intelligence and memory" would automatically assume that just because a product carries the letter "i" it is an Apple product.

Chalk one up for iCommon sense.

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Filed Under: australia, trademark
Companies: apple

21 Comments

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william (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 10:47am

this is almost as good as the Onion news story couple years ago with Bill Gates patented 0's and 1's, except this is real.

good way to start a Friday. :)
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BearGriz72 (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 11:25am

In My Imagination�
Australian Trademark Tribunal Gives Apple the iFinger
Apple Again Responds with iNuke
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jdub (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 11:51am

iAgree
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www.eZee.se (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:00pm

"Chalk one up for iCommon sense. "

I have just been sent here by Apple to tell you to
cease and desist immediately.

We (Apple) may have a product in the future that uses the word icommon or icommon technology (also yet to be developed) and dont appreciate you violating one of our (yet to be) trademarks.
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Johnny Canada, 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:03pm

@www.eZee.se
Is it not i(Apple) ???
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:03pm

Re: iCommon
Scotty from Star Trek beat you to it. Though, with a Scottish brogue, it always sounds like "iCanna" but, yeah--prior art, totally.
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Danny, 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:04pm

So....
when is Apple going to sue Nintendo over the DSI? I don't even think Nintendo uses a lower case i but common sense doesn't appear to be a factor in the suits Apple files.
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www.eZee.se (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:09pm

Re: So....
(again speaking on behalf of Apple)
First we are going after Nintendo for having the i in "Nintendo", that is a clear violation of our copyright.
We have repeatedly told them its no big deal to simply drop the i and be Nntendo, we think it has a nice ring to it.
Heck! We even suggested they use this as they slogan:

Two N's are better than one
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:12pm

"Chalk one up for iCommon sense. "

Hey, that's iNFRINGEMENT!!
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A Dan (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:13pm

Re: So....
Yes, the Nintendo DSi uses a lowercase i.
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www.eZee.se (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:13pm

Re: @www.eZee.se
No it isn't, and my friend James Murdoch just told me that you have stolen our Apple and its copyright infringement for you to mention it here.

Our lawyers will be contacting you.
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www.eZee.se (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:21pm

Re: Re: @www.eZee.se
Ok, Our lawyer is 'busy' so she'll get back to you later.. she's on the iPad.
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Homer, 12 Mar 2010 @ 12:22pm

Can We Use Eye Eyenstead?
Ths s really slly. f they expect to have a copyrght over the letter " ", then t wll have to be removed from the alphabet, else we will be breaking copyrght.
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Valkor, 12 Mar 2010 @ 1:01pm

New higher trademark bar
I'd really love to see the phrase "person of ordinary intelligence and memory" used in this context more often. The standard of "ordinary" instead of "moron" would really make a lot of these garbage trademark suits more prima facie retarded then they already are.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 1:03pm

Re: Can We Use Eye Eyenstead?
I count 2 "i"'s you forgot to remove.

That'll be $40k or both your kidneys, por favor....
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 1:15pm

Re: Re: Can We Use Eye Eyenstead?
My father FTW!!!
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Gozza, 12 Mar 2010 @ 2:12pm

God just called in, he wants his apple back.
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bob, 12 Mar 2010 @ 2:13pm

I like a reasonable man
The registrar overseeing the case Michael Kirov, who confessed to being a tech head and a fan of Apple's products, judged that Apple failed to demonstrate that a "person of ordinary intelligence and memory" would automatically assume that just because a product carries the letter "i" it is an Apple product.

I like how Australia has raised the bar a bit above a moron in a hurry.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2010 @ 2:24pm

this just proves that Jobs is an i-diot.
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Anthony (profile), 12 Mar 2010 @ 2:48pm

Back in the early 90s in Australia (before any Apple 'i' products were released) there was a range of kitchenware released that had the i prefix. Breville never once tried to claim that they owned the 'i' prefix when Apple started using it.
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ipguy (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 3:17am

what about
products that do use the "i" in front of the name? Sure, DOPi is obviously not an apple product. However, I can believe that a moron in a hurry would confuse iTrack or iSight (made them up, dunno if they exist) as real apple products.

would be interested in hearing your opinion on that one.
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