Did Apple pay big bucks in ‘iAds’ trademark settlement?

“A trademark lawsuit filed against Apple by a Web advertising firm over the term ‘iAds’ was quietly settled in July,” Greg Sandoval reports for CNET.

“No one has disclosed exactly how the case was resolved but Apple now owns the ‘iAds’ trademark, and last week a company peripherally involved in the suit posted a note to the Web that said Apple paid a ‘seven-figure settlement,'” Sandoval reports. “At Apple’s iOS 4 event on April 8, CEO Steve Jobs announced Apple’s iAds program. A month later, Innovate Media, an online ad agency headquartered near Los Angeles, filed a trademark suit against Apple. Innovate Media had used the term since 2006 and was granted two trademarks (3,515,183 and 3,515,184) for “iAds” in October 2008.”

MacDailyNews Note: Apple actually calls it “iAd,” not “iAds.” More info here.

Sandoval continues, “We’ve seen Apple caught up in plenty of these trademark disputes before and just like many of those, this one was settled without a peep from either party about the terms. That likely would have been the last of it but on Thursday, Consor, a company that helps evaluate intellectual property, posted a release to the Web titled ‘Consor Intellectual Asset Management Secures Success for Four Clients.’ In a teaser line under the headline, the company wrote: ‘iAds, a 7-figure settlement from Apple Computer in a trademark infringement case.’ Now here’s the odd part: Consor is now backpedaling from that release.”

Read more in the full article here.

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