Apple's monopoly on letter i is under threat
The Australian trademarks tribunal (Apple’s trademarks tribunal) rejected Apple’s claim, which the company requested to ban the small Australian company Wholesale Central Pty Ltd to register the DOPi trademark, under which they intended to produce laptop bags and covers for Apple products.
The argument of Apple in this dispute was that the name “DOPi” is very similar to its name of the player “iPod” written in reverse.
However, the representative of IP Australia (the government agency that supervises the registration and use of trademarks), Michael Kirov, said that there are already several trademarks on the market, such as iSkin and iSoft, that not only use the prefix "i" in the name, but also working in the same segment of the market for electronic products that Apple. He also led the judgment that Apple failed to prove that “a person with ordinary mind and memory” seeing the letter “i” at the beginning of the product name will automatically assume that it was released by Apple.
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Apple legal units have long and often persecuted every legal entity and individual in whose actions they see a violation of the copyright and trademarks of their company. But in the future, this practice may cease - in connection with the foregoing judicial precedent, it will be harder for Apple to prove that ordinary people can be misled by similar names or the letter “i” in them.
Lawyers believe that although the case does not concern existing Apple trademarks in the near future, in the future, companies that register trademarks with the prefix "i" in the name will have more chances to win in lawsuits that Apple may initiate against them .
and © tochnik.
The argument of Apple in this dispute was that the name “DOPi” is very similar to its name of the player “iPod” written in reverse.
However, the representative of IP Australia (the government agency that supervises the registration and use of trademarks), Michael Kirov, said that there are already several trademarks on the market, such as iSkin and iSoft, that not only use the prefix "i" in the name, but also working in the same segment of the market for electronic products that Apple. He also led the judgment that Apple failed to prove that “a person with ordinary mind and memory” seeing the letter “i” at the beginning of the product name will automatically assume that it was released by Apple.
')
Apple legal units have long and often persecuted every legal entity and individual in whose actions they see a violation of the copyright and trademarks of their company. But in the future, this practice may cease - in connection with the foregoing judicial precedent, it will be harder for Apple to prove that ordinary people can be misled by similar names or the letter “i” in them.
Lawyers believe that although the case does not concern existing Apple trademarks in the near future, in the future, companies that register trademarks with the prefix "i" in the name will have more chances to win in lawsuits that Apple may initiate against them .
and © tochnik.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/87870/
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