“In a suit filed yesterday in the US Disctrict Court in Arizona, a company named iCloud Communications, LLC has claimed trademark infringements against Apple over the use of the name iCloud,” TNW reports.
“Specifically, iCloud Communications is claiming that Apple’s heavy promotion of the iCloud product is damaging to its business and has all but removed the branding of the name from itself and placed it onto Apple,” TNW reports. “To make matters somewhat worse, there’s some accusation that Apple’s services are nearly identical to the ones being offered by iCloud Communciations [since its formation in 2005].”
TNW reports, “There’s no specific amount of monetary relief set, but the suit does call for ‘all profits, gains and advantages’ as well as ‘all monetary damages sustained.’ Further, the suit asks for Apple to refrain from using the iCloud name and to ‘deliver for destruction all labels, signs, prints, insignia, letterhead, brochures, business cards, invoices and any other written or recorded material’ with the iCloud name.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: An agreement will be reached and that will be that and whatever ado there is now will end up being about nothing.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nesta” for the heads up.]
Oh Oh!
Formed in 2005? And you didn’t think that starting a company with “i” in it might be a problem after Apple had years of iMac, iPod, iTunes? Yeah… Best of luck on your lawsuit. Morons…
Luck? Pffft! These guys will cash in. There’s no law against using any word that begins with the letter i as name for a product or business.
Apple legal will perform a business colonoscopy on every aspect of this business, looking through business plans, tax returns and filings, personnel/criminal background checks, anything that can be used as leverage in a negotiated settlement.
If they’re clean and their paperwork is in order and their hiring practices are legitimate, they will hit the lotto.
exactly.
iHome anyone?….
Dude – sorry, but you’re an idiot.
Apple can’t own the lowercase letter ‘i’.
You’re a moron for writing such a dumb response…
Faded
Read your post to your mother, get the soap in your mouth and then go back to the basement until you learn to play nicer.
He’s not dumb. If you literally run a business with “I” in it, and your hearing alot of people talk about how apple is trying to keep up with android and their “cloud” services, an intersection is bound to happen. Don’t call people names.
moron? Idiot? Excuse me but this name would NEVER pass in a business school or be suggested by a consultant. IHome lucked out but what would of happened if Apple decided to set up a service, which could be like the cloud, called iHome? Apple may not own the “I” aspect but it’s from Apple that we get this. Plus how many times have we seen Apple now going after other companies with the word Pod or now App? No need to call names. You’re just making yourself look like a moron and idiot.
… with the iPhone name, now with the iCloud name? This is a bit pathetic! How can they be so frikking BRILLIANT with their hardware and software and so totally LAME with their legal searches?
Dude … Apple doesn’t own the concept of starting a word with an “i” and calling it a “product name”. Get a life.
Agreed. Dude, get an iLife!
I thought Apple bought the name iCloudfrom someone not too long ago?
I thought the same. Maybe there were already two companies using the name.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/01/apple-takes-control-of-icloud-com/
Me too. I’m certain I read somewhere that Apple had reached an agreement with someone over the use of ‘iCloud’, so either this is the same business trying for two bites of the cherry, (unlikely), or someone else with the same name, in which case how come they didn’t kick up a fuss about the other business using their name? Or were they desperately hoping Apple would adopt the name and then they could sue apple and make much more money.
The plaintiff, iCloud Communications, has the domain geticloud.com
ICloud Communications is located in the USA.
Xcerion, the company that sold icloud.com to Apple, is an European company.
Being in different countries, using the same name was OK. The multinational Apple stepped in.
I don’t see how they can get anywhere with this, given that Apple have the domain iCloud.com. But the really interesting question is why they come forward now. It’s not exactly been hidden that Apple’s iCloud was going to launch. Someone holding back here for a purpose, or just doesn’t read the news? If you know you’re going to be crushed…
here’s a check, kiss my ass…
Boys and girls, register everything you can with “i” in front of it pronto. Never know when Apple might turn its attention that way. It’s a good way of making what Dire Straits called Money for Nothing. Er… maybe that should be Money for iNothing. See how iEasy it is to do? iHa iha!!
That’s funny! You should have your own show! XD lol
actually, thats where you WILL get into trouble.
you can’t go squat on sites like you used to be able to do.
Nonetheless, it was someone else’s concept.
But they never registered a trademark for iCloud, nor iCloud Communications, and Xcerion AB, did register it on 2008 (i beleive) and 18 months later no one complained, so it became final.
I think they have no case. Apple DID pay Xcerion AB for the TM
i.e. iCloud Communications case is thrown out of court.
I just checked. They’re a VoIP outfit. Period. Their claim,
“Apple’s services are nearly identical to the ones being offered by iCloud Communciations”
seems a bit thin. That word “nearly” carries a lot of weight.
They have a data center, that separate from their voip sevices, as well.
Nearly identical services – yeah right!
It’d be awesome if Apple met their demand even by only 10% to deliver all printed materials for destruction. It would cost very little to send three or four semi-trailers, but they would be utterly crushed under the avalanche of posters, billboards, business cards…
Will Amazon write an ‘Amicus Curiae’ in support of iCloud Communications?
Wow, someone with some real legal knowledge here. Glad to here from you on this site.
Of course when Apple is involved, MDN thinks everyone else is wrong. Sad.
Hopefully iCloud goes after Apple and gets lots of money!!!
Hopefully? You’re high.
They’ll just turn Apple down until the settlement is big enough. This company is a private holding with limited liability and maybe six major clients and a few hundred residential clients.
They’re NOT going after Apple.
Sigh, I think Apple also has to also demolish the data center now.
I thunk there is more to this lawsuit. Sounds waaay too convenient.
Anyway, I’m going to patent “iApple!” $$$
I’m surprised at the number of people here who seem unbothered by increasing reports of this sort of behavior on the part of Apple. We would (and did) crucify MS for this sort of thing.
I find them troubling.
If this company is legit and is justifiable in their actions, what is Apple going to do if they refuse to play ball by signing over their rights?
Doesn’t bother me in the least. It’s just business.
The company bringing the suit against Apple new perfectly well what they were getting themselves into, when they chose their name.
As to your question, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Why don’t we wait for the outcome, before you convict Apple.
Not for one second do I believe that Apple legal didn’t do its homework. I call BS.
In the off chance that it is legit then Apple should pony up. After all Apple would unleash a world of hurt on anyone coping their brand.
Remember how long Apple Records took to get Apple Computers to agree to a settlement? I hope iCloud Communications has a lot of money to pay lawyers for a very long time.
[I]“Specifically, iCloud Communications is claiming that Apple’s heavy promotion of the iCloud product is damaging to its business and has all but removed the branding of the name from itself and placed it onto Apple,” TNW reports.[/i]
Can they put a monetary value on how much the “Apple iCloud” business is damaging their business of “iCloud Communications”? Doubt whether Apple could be disadvantaging their non-existent «iCloud» business servicing Apple’s computer devices, such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iEtc. Wasn’t aware anybody else was servicing Apple devices from the «iCloud», not even those other two companies mentioned in Steve’s Keynote, Amazon and Google, I think they were.
If iCloud Communications gets their way, I’m going to sue the Acme Communications, Acme Toothpaste, Acme Construction down the street and with that money buy my competitor Acme Swimming Pool Cleaners, then make my Acme Pools the biggest company in town.
Apple Fan boys are such HYPOCRITES. Apple steals a trade mark and the dumbass fan boys just support it.
pathetic twerps.
Au contrairé, it looks like iCloud Communications is trying to steal Apple’s iCloud trade mark.
You really need to intelligent up. Apple paid for iCloud.com. That’s not at all the same as iCloud Communications. Read the Acme post above, which makes the point so well. Why do you think some of us buy .com, .net, .org, etc.? Because they are NOT the same. They can be entirely different businesses. I would throw this case out in a heartbeat.
At some point, someone at Apple, maybe even Steve himself, must have the urge to just buy gnats like this company and turn them into a cleaning service, if not just make them disappear altogether.
Or Apple could just change the name of iCloud like they changed Rendezvous to Bonjour because of a name dispute.
BUY US PLEASE
hmm?? Is it posible that this is a coincidence? I’ll look up this so called iCloud company and see what the heck they are about
Ive seen thant site but I don’t see any services they have similar to Apple!s. I’ll check again, might have missed something
A trademark and a domain name are two separate things. Registering or owning one does not grant you rights over the other one.
When you file to register a trademark, a search is performed by the office of patents and trademarks, and if a similar or same trademark covering the same classification is found, it will not grant/approve your application.
You can file to do a search if you want, before directly filing for trademark registration; the fees for this are smaller and takes less time to get a response back; if I recall right the fees for trademark registration are non-refundable regardless of the outcome.
First we want to know if Apple filed for the iCloud trademark registration; they could still use/start using the name even if they did not file for trademark registration and only later determine if any company claiming infringement actually registered it.
Secondly, we also want to know if the other company actually registered the same name. It is not required to file for trademark to be able to use a name as such.
Based on registration filings or dates of first usage, and the classification of your intended usage, is that conflicts can be solved or settled.
I think Apple must have known they could start using the name if they could keep it.
Lets see how this plays out.
Right. Only post on here from someone who knows a bit about trademarks. Bottom line: owning a domain that is the name of your doing business as name is not a trademark. You must either register the trademark or be prepared to demonstrate prior use on the market to defend agains others doing business with the same name after you.
Nothing is black and white in trademark dispute cases. Lots of factors. One is whether the offending business is in the same industry or not. For example, a machine shop named iMetal will have trouble defending against Apple if they released a video game called iMetal. Two very different industries and likely not to cause confusion with consumers. And you have to demonstrate confusion in the market and damage to your business.
In this case, I can see both companies are in the tech industry. These guys can demonstrate prior use on the market since 2005. They certainly have a case and rightfully so.