Apple Inc. is a household name for being competitive in the smartphone and computer markets, but judging by its litigation activity one might also mistake it for having an ambition to also dominate the legal world.
However its legal claim might be challenged by a trademark tribunal preventing its ownership of using the “i” in its product naming convention.
When its flagship creation iPhone was launched by the California-based technology giant’s chief executive officer Steve Jobs, he verified that Apple Inc. filed more than 200 patents for the iPhone and threatened to enforce them.
Recently, Apple commenced a patent-infringement grievance against Taiwan’s HTC Corp. in early March attempting to halt U.S. imports of the HTC’s phones that operate Google Inc.’s Android software. There is a similar legal dispute against Finland-based Nokia the world’s largest maker of mobile phones.
One of the many patent complaints by Apple was against small Sydney based company Wholesale Central, which manufactures laptop bags and cases for Apple products. Apple claims that the company’s use of the name ‘DOPi,’ ‘iPod’ spelled backward, compromises its popular portable music device which has sold more than 100 million around the world.
Steve Jobs, in January announced that he wants the company to be the world’s biggest mobile device maker by revenue. The iPhones, iPods, and laptops made up most of Apple’s $15.7 billion in sales during the fiscal first quarter that ended on Dec. 26, 2009, according to Jobs.
Financially, Apple is in a strong position, so the legal avenue it is pursuing has had a ripple effect. HTC Corp. fell the most in three weeks in Taipei trading since Apple Inc. filed its patent infringement lawsuit. A recent Deutsche Bank Research Report concludes that a company defending a patent is favorable and a sign of strength, citing Apple as having more patents than Google or HTC.
Apple is not the only company that uses the ‘i’ product branding technique. Fujitsu has had a phone named ‘iPad” since 2002 coinciding with Apple’s new tablet computer name. This in turn has resulted in another trademark feud. The patent wars are likely to continue despite the current ruling of IP Australia, the government organization managing trademark guidelines. IP Australia’s ruling seems to have set a precedence that weakens Apple’s dominance.
The registrar, Michael Kirov decided that Apple did not have grounds to prove that a “person of ordinary intelligence and memory” would associate products named with an ‘i’ would be automatically be considered an Apple product by default. An intellectual property lawyer Trevor Choy believed that this could be the first case where IP Australia has said no on this issue in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
