“It’s not something that’s likely to keep the lights blazing at 1 Infinite Loop deep into the night but Apple has just lost a trademark case in the New Zealand courts,” Tim Worstall reports for Forbes. “A small product in a small country isn’t really going to worry all that many people.”
“The matter was about a waterproof case for a phone called ‘driPhone,'” Worstall reports. “Apple objected to this as the name might be thought to be too close to their own trademark, iPhone.”
“The courts essentially told Apple to go away as this did not impinge upon their trademark,” Worstall reports. “That the court also told Apple to pay [New Zealand inventor Hayden Crowther]’s court costs.”
Read more in the full article here.
It’s nice to see courts work as intended. AAPL was out of line on this one.
Apple obviously not out of line. The newzeelander could have named it DryppPhone. But no. They wanted to ride apples coat tails. All Apple is saying is, “get off my coat tails”.
Unfortunately, in order to protect their intellectual property, Apple has to file objections like this one.
Exactly. Losing this case isn’t a big deal. Not having filed it at all could’ve been, as the trademark might have been cited if someone else decides to get even closer to “iPhone” with their product’s name.
——RM
I can be inspired by something without plagiarizing. I would call this inspiration. It’s a fine line, I do agree, but I would draw the line on behalf of the DriPhone.
Testing the MDN app. Forgive me.
idriPhone say Apple.
Small country yes, but if Australia follows court determination which it most likely will being such close neighbours to NZ then decision will spread to Europe and Usa. Australia is the worlds test case for everything. Music artists, movie releases, Phones, electrical, if it doesnt take off in ozz it wont work anywhere else.
The decision is perhaps more understandable in a New Zealand context. There’s a range of wet-weather gear initially designed here called “Driza-bone”. It could be argued that the inventor was trading on that name, as much as Apple’s “iPhone”.
Just doing their job. If you cannot show you are protecting a trademark, you can lose it.
Havent posted here for a few years – But say NZ in the headline.
LOL wow shock horror (Court uses a bit of common sense).
Apple gets away with too many of these copy right infringements
Tried to register macsmart years ago and the regulation authority without even Apple asking said no.
So all words with Apple , i or mac somehow belong to a company.
Anyway hows everyone at MacDailyNews,
Everyone like Tim Cook, the new iOS 7,
Can’t blame Apple as they are probably the most stolen from company in history, but I have to admit the courts got it right on this one.
Unfortunately, the “small” company now has attorney fees to pay.