“High Tech Computer (HTC) celebrated its 10th anniversary on Thursday with a rare compliment from Apple: the company adopted the same name HTC uses on one of its smartphones for the iPod Touch,” Dan Nystedt reports for IDG News Service.
Nystedt reports, “HTC, the Taiwanese handset and PDA (personal digital assistant) maker, earlier this year launched the HTC Touch, a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS smartphone designed with one-touch screen features, viewed by many as a rival to the iPhone.”
MacDailyNews Take: Many? Who, exactly? Does the HTC Touch really look like a credible rival to Apple’s iPhone? Let’s take a look:
Apple’s iPhone:
HTC Touch:
‘Nuff said.
Nystedt continues, “Upon hearing of the name of the new iPod, HTC president and CEO Peter Chou said, ‘HTC Touch is a trademark, but I can’t comment right now,’ on whether HTC might file suit against the company.”
“A trademark lawyer in Taipei, speaking on condition of anonymity, said descriptive words normally can’t be trademarked, but added that if the HTC Touch and the iPod touch share similar functions, such as allowing users to play digital music, then Apple may face a legal hassle. The HTC Touch does allow for digital music storage and playing,” Nystedt reports.
More in the full article here.
This is ridiculous. Clearly, Apple has been making iPods for some time now, which, as everyone knows, play digital music and video.
As stated above, the word ‘Touch’ is a descriptive word for this particular iPod.
How about “iPod MultiTouch”? Too many syllables?
The lawsuit won’t hold water. Apple’s product has a lower case “t” in touch and HTC’s has an upper case “T”. two ToTally different avenues of the word.
I just ordered my 16GB iPod touch from Apple.ca
niiice
Why, pray tell, did you think to post an iPhone video as a comparison to the HTC Touch? The iPod touch is not a phone. Worst case, Apple will have to pay a few dollars to make any offered suit go away before it gets to court. Not that HTC will not get thousands of dollars in free publicity just for keeping the rumor of a suit alive.
Dave
Shouldn’t that have been called the HTC Wait.
How slow does that device work? I’d imagine the cow that that steak came from died of old age.
And doesn’t it seem remarkably similar to the Apple ad (for seafood). I wonder which one was created, filmed and broadcast first?
Isn’t there an Ipoddailynews site for iPod news?
Just my $0.02
That HTC Touch is the worst POS I have ever seen. Look how slow it is!! Not to mention how many times the user has to ‘touch” the screen a second time to get something to work. I guess you can trademark shoddy garbage.
I stated for a long time regular words should never be allowed to be copyrighted.
Words from every day English like “Windows”, “Word”, “Touch”, and even “.net” or “SQl Server” (all relational database engines are SQL Servers” should not be subject to copyright.
I think Cisco (was it Cisco?) with their iPhone had better groounds to sue than this company most of us have no idea who they are.
Why don’t they sue others because of the TouchPad?
I’m no lawyer, but as long as I know, when using English words, when there’s no way of confusion abot products, there’s no dispute. An iPod is not a phone and it can not be confused. Therefore, I’d say this is a no-case.
Correct me if I’m wrong, please
If anyone is going to call for the lawers it’s going to APPLE…
isn’t the HTC Touch a PDA and/or phone? isn’t the iPod touch a music playing device? doesn’t sound like they are the same type of product to me… even if the HTC thingy can play music, it’s still not a dedicated music playing device like the iPod touch.
btw, that HTC Touch is sloooooooow as hello! gotta love windblows!
Isn’t the iPod made by Apple?
Just my $0.02
And the HTC Touch uses a Stylus. A STYLUS!!
How 20th century…..
HTC has no case. They can trademark “HTC Touch”, but they don’t own the word “touch”. There’s no marketplace confusion between HTC Touch (TM) and Apple iPod Touch (TM). HTC is just looking for an easy payday.
well then it’s a good thing the iPod doesn’t play digital music!
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sounds like Lawsuit as Publicity.
We’ve taught the world well…
Add an ‘E’ for “Touche”
Touchy, touchy!!
Suing would be moronic. This is the BEST thing that could ever have happened to them. No one would ever buy an iPod touch thinking it was an HTC Touch, but their product just showed up on the radar thanks to Apple. Wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
iTouch Myself®
“Can I put my finger on your “Touch?”
“Sure… Hey, that’s not my “Touch.”
“That’s not my finger.”
iPod Middle-Finger™
Eff these incessant lawsuit filing wannabe’s.
HTC Touch
iPod touch
The lowercase letter changes the meaning completely. They have no case.
Also, please send me a quarter, Me in LA. I own the patent on using “eff” as a replacement for “fuck.”
The name “iPod Touch” is really dorky, IMHO. It’s the kind of mindless name that anyone but Apple might have thought of. I don’t want Apple to get sued, but I wouldn’t mind it if they changed the name.
Touch me, all night long
So this little company thinks it has a case because apple called the device the ipod ‘touch’?
Bloody ridiculous – iPod touch sounds nothing like HTC touch.
Stupid and this case has no legs and will be laughed out of court.
No merit. First, the iPod is a music player, not a cellphone so they technically do not compete in the same space as trademark infringement requires. Second, the word touch is the generic action one takes on a product of this nature. Is HTC going to try to stop all manufacturers of touch sensitive products from using the word touch? Don’t think so.
In a related case. Coca Cola sues Apple over the use of the name Classic in the new iPod Classic.
i am going to sue appl eover the use over the letter “i” which clearly refers to me…..
Meanwhile, Divinyls announce a lawsuit claiming damages against their classic iTouchMyself.
@ Divinyl
D’oh! Sorry, you beat me to it!!!
The HTC Touch is a joke, are they really serious about this thing? It’s slow, not very responsive and cumbersome, it will most likely crash at least once a day, have syncing problems and be an easy target for viruses.
Mr. Hankey from South Park is also reportedly suing MS for copying his likeness with the Zune.
First, this is about a word. Touch – right.
Let HTC Touch and co… sue Apple for the word.
THEN you will see APPLE slam them hard for all the things that appear so similar to iPhone.
Or was HTC the first touch screen phone? MutiTouch is a far better interface and has more potential to the user.
I’m suing all posters who have used he word ‘lawsuit.’ I have word-marked the term as a trademark. In my trademark application, I have demonstrated how this word is new euphemism for “incredibly-lazy, sleazy, shyster-driven crap.”
Pay up or else…
MW: “Away” as in «Wasn’t Bush’s “torte reform” supposed to toss frivolous wastes like this one away? Oops. Forgot it M$ that donated to buy Republican protection.»
*waves at the Divinyls & Cathy Dennis*
*laughs at HTC*
Buh-bye.
Hey MDN, format the site for the iPhone. These photos don’t show up.
Relax, sweet mama.
There’s enough sexy to go around.
Creative must be much more worried than HTC.
They have a zen touch (discontinued) who is a media player like the Ipod
I’m sure Apples attorneys were well prepared for this claim before the iPod touch was even announced. They wouldn’t have named it iPod touch unless they felt confident they would prevail.
I hereby trademark the word “trademark” for use in trademarking a name, logo, color, idea, thought, omission, lack of thought, texture, curve, squareness, etc. Now every time there is a trademark filing, publication, or dispute, all parties must pay me.
There’s also a Zen Nano and a Zen Touch.
I don’t see this being a problem.
I checked the USPTO records and Apple has a better priority claim for MULTI-TOUCH than HTC does for HTC TOUCH. Apple’s application claims the following goods: “handheld mobile digital electronic devices with electronic mail, digital data transmission, audio player, video player, handheld computer, personal digital assistant, electronic organizer, electronic notepad, telephone, computer gaming, and camera functions, and computer software for use with such devices.” Sounds like the HTC Touch. If there is going to be a problem, maybe it is HTC who is going to have to deal.
Apple should flip HTC the “iFinger”
I remember that, many years ago, Audi sued Maserati over the use of the term “quattro”. Maserati successfully argued that “quattro” simply meant “four” in their native Italian and they could therefore use it any way they wanted, as long as it was in the context of describing “four”. I think Apple has a similar case: as long as they are describing “touch” they are home free, it’s HTC that are purloining foreign words for their trademark.
Winblows crap! Nuff said.
i know: call it iPod WiFi
Lelu multipass.
Remember when Creative was reported to have been considering suing Apple for using the name “nano”? We all see how well that went…
A little off topic:
I think Apple will release Leopard when they release the iPod touch.
Why?
Look at the menu bar on the iPod touch… it’s very Leopard.
If HTC’s has to use a stylus, then surely you could argue about misdescription.
Surely “HTC Poke” would be closer to the mark for that product!
Years ago Miller Brewing thought they had a trademark on Miller “Lite”, but lost out suing Busch and other brewers when they came out with their brews called “xxxx Light”.