5 Times Apple Hit Legal Trouble Over Product Names
Image: Flickr, Ben Stanfield
What's in a name? For Apple, a lot of legal trouble.
Time and time again, whenever Apple announces the name of a product,
some other company comes out of the woodwork and claims that the name is
already trademarked. Usually, the claims are puffed-up attempts to drum
up a lawsuit and make money off the tech giant. Apple has seen its fair share of those kinds of lawsuits.
However, sometimes the claims stand up in court, landing Apple in a tough spot, legally.
See also: The 18 Most Important Features in iOS 8
It’s been that way since the company's inception. In 1978, Apple
Corps, a Beatles-founded company that owns record label Apple Records, sued the tech company for trademark infringement. Apple Computer eventually handed over $80,000 to settle the spat in 1981.
Here are five other times that names have caused some trouble for Apple.
1. HealthKit
Apple recently announced the launch of HealthKit,
an iOS program that will help users quantify health care data. We don't
know much about it yet, but the name sounded a little too familiar to
one Australian health startup.
Alison Hardacre, the cofounder and managing director of company HealthKit, stepped forward to claim that Apple stole the moniker.
"It is very flattering that they like our name, but I’m a little let
down because how hard would it have been to spend five seconds to put
HealthKit.com into their browser and find us?” she told Wired.
The Australian HealthKit has been around since 2012. According to Wired, Apple has not yet reached out to the company.
2. iPhone
Image: Flickr, Taehyun Kim
Yes,
Apple borrowed the name of its popular smartphone. Since 1996, data
hardware company Linksys has been selling a product called the iPhone,
trademarked by parent company Cisco.
So, when Apple announced it was going to create a phone, it was
informally dubbed the iPhone (because of the popularity of the iPod and
other lowercase "i" Apple products), a name that spread across the media
and blogosphere.
Apple had allegedly approached Cisco about about getting the rights
to the iPhone trademark, but Cisco did not acquiesce. Thus, Apple began
quietly applying for trademarks for the "iPhone" in other countries and
continents. A company called Ocean Telecom Services filed for the
trademark in the U.S., using the almost exact wording as the
international Apple paperwork.
Cisco filed a lawsuit, claiming Apple owned Ocean Telecom and was using it as a front to acquire the trademark.
Shortly afterward, Cisco and Apple settled, though no details were given about financial agreements. Apple has since sold more than 500 million iPhones.
3. iPad
Apple's first foray into the tablet world came in 2010, with the
release of the iPad. However, the name wasn't as popular as the iPhone,
frankly, because it made some women cringe. Apple used the name anyway — after a long legal battle with an Asian company called Proview.
The company filed multiple lawsuits against Apple, which had bought
the rights for the moniker "iPad" from the company in 2009. However,
Proview claimed Apple did not get the rights to use the name in China,
which is Apple's second-largest market. The legal back-and-forth carried
on until Apple finally settled and agreed to pay Proview $60 million.
Though that money would make most happy, Proview was in debt at the
time, and had hoped to make at least $400 million in the settlement.
4. iCloud
Apple launched its storage service in 2011, much to the chagrin of
iCloud Communications, a Phoenix-based cloud computing service that had
used the term since 2005.
The company filed a lawsuit
later that year, seeking unspecified damages for "all profits, gains
and advantages obtained from Apple's unlawful conduct." It also pointed
to Apple's iPhone debacle with Cisco as a perfect example of Apple's
copyright history.
However, Apple won this round. A few months later, iCloud Comm changed its name
to Clear Digital Communications and dropped the lawsuit. As it turns
out, the company had never actually registered the trademark "iCloud,"
leaving the legal road clear for Apple to register it.
5. Snow Leopard
The Mac operating system Snow Leopard was released back in 2009,
carrying on Apple's tradition of cat-inspired OS names. After it came
the Lion and the Mountain Lion. Yet, it wasn't until 2012 that a Chinese
company called Snow Leopard Household Chemical Co. decided to file a lawsuit.
The company claims Apple is infringing on its "Snow Leopard"
trademark. It had apparently filed for the Chinese translation of the
term, "Xuebao" in 2000.
As far as suits go, it was fairly modest. The company sought about $80,000 in damages, and a formal apology from Apple. According to PC Mag, a Chinese legal expert says the suit will likely be dropped, because "Apple did not use the word Xuebao to sell its product in China."
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