“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