“An Arizona company sued Apple in federal court last week over the ‘iCloud’ trademark, court documents show,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “One legal expert said Apple would likely settle the case for cash.”
“At first glance, it may seem Apple has the edge with the iCloud trademark. Last week it registered 11 applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and has reportedly acquired the already-existing U.S. trademark formerly registered to Xcerion,” Keizer reports. “Meanwhile, iCloud Communications has not registered the ‘iCloud’ trademark with USPTO, according to searches of the agency’s database.”
Keizer reports, “But that doesn’t prevent iCloud from taking its complaint to court, or even winning, a legal expert said today. ‘Although a trademark registration does give you additional rights, there are also what are called ‘common law rights,” said Brad Salai, a partner with Harter Secrest & Emery who practices patent and trademark law… ‘If a small company is looking for a reasonable settlement, Apple usually settles when they don’t have a strong case,’ said Salai, referring to deals Apple has struck with in the past with trademark holders. ‘But if [iCloud Communications is looking for $100 million or so, Apple will probably take its chances [in court].'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In their complaint, iCloud Communications attempts to make a huge stretch between their telephone business and Apple’s iCloud. They basically try to claim that anything associated with the Internet is a cloud service. iCloud also mentions “tens of THOUSANDS” spent per year on marketing and “hundreds of THOUSANDS” in sales, along with mention of a $550k “data center.”
In other words, Steve Jobs lost more cash in his couch cushions last week than iCloud Communications is worth.
Any ado is too much ado regarding this publicity stunt, er… “lawsuit.”
It is common for a company to have its main office located in an office building or office park and to have a data center or space leased in a data center located elsewhere. Just saying. I think it is too soon to say that they are a tiny business with no customers or to imply that. Also, even if they do have a case to use “iCloud” it does not necessarily mean that their claims that they will be confused with Apple are valid. Their customers will NOT be confused with Apple’s iCloud service so I think this company has little change of any big verdict in their favor for damages. Take a little settlement and run would be my advice to them. Nobody is confusing them with Apple. Period.
What I don’t understand is that Apple bought the name “iCloud” from someone else.
Can Apple sue the other company for falsely obtaining and selling the name to Apple?
What a mess.
But Apple, will settle. Actually they should just buy iCloud Communications. Sheesh.
Apple bought the icloud.com domain from Xcerion, a European company. Trademarks are specific to countries, so Apple did not buy the “icloud trademark for the USA.
Actually they did.
Apple bought an old trademark registration. That doesn’t mean the registration was necessarily for the uses Apple’s iCloud entails. Apple can’t sue Xcerion for “falsely obtaining” the name because it didn’t falsely acquire anything: it owned the trademark rights.
Think the old Apple Computer v. Apple Records legal dispute over their respective apple logos. Both have the right to be called Apple, and use an apple logo, but the uses had to be different an not confusing to consumers.
That’s the crux of iCloud Communication’s case. It is involved in telephone communication sales. It has been in business and operating under that name, building a brand. It is entitled not to have Apple crush it or interfere with its common-law trademark rights.
C’mon MDN, give a brotha a break. These guys were here first and deserve to be compensated by big ol’ Apple Computer, er uh, Apple Corps, er hu, Apple Inc. Just ask Sysco, er uh, Cisco.
Also MDN, don’t get so snide with your comments. Just because iCloud Communications is a small business doesn’t mean you need to get snarky about its location, size, sales or abilities.
After all, Apple Computer started out in a garage, remember? I think a suite in a professional building is a far more impressive address than your parent’s garage for any business.
Long time read first time poster, just to say completely agree with @bizlaw, is pretty harsh of MDN. I much prefer your vitriol when it is aimed at the bigger boys.
Maybe MDN should redirect some of that vitriol toward whoever created their app. What a POS. Unbelievable that they think so little of us that they re-released essentially the same buggy $hitbox they pulled earlier this year.
iCloud Communications is a VoIP solution provider since 1985.
What that says is they changed there name to iCloud. This Stinks.
Their URL is “geticloud.com” Which means they did not or could not get icloud.com. Apple went to the source and bought the domain name for $4 million. Since this company did not sue the previous owner, they probably couldn’t.
Since Apple does not provide VoIP services I can’t say these people are being pushed out of business that way.
The Wikipedia page states their name is “Cloud Communications” and the history of that page starts: April 29, 2010.
It’s another, “Let’s get rich off Apple attempt.”
It’s not a name change, but rather existing company owners starting another company.
PheonixSoft (presumably from 1985 – the name sounds like it) still exists as an equipment provider for network- and telecom as well as offering data center services.
In contrast, Geticloud.com looks like it was registered in 2005, so I would guess they created the iCloud company to profit from the blossoming VoIP market.
http://www.phoenixsoft.com/contact.htm
http://geticloud.com/contact.html
The Swedish company filed for the icloud service mark in 2008 and it was published for opposition in 2009 – also probably when they acquired the domain name. Apple purchased the mark and the domain.
It would be interesting to see how this plays out, but we’ll probably never know.
Thing is….it don’t matter if they are telecommunications or sell cotton. If they have a trademark on “iCloud” then Apple will need to pay one way or another. Apple knew this……ever since they started naming their products and services with the small “i” prefix the names of everything with an i in front have been taken. Apple had to know they’d step on someone’s toes with this name but were willing to risk it to keep their naming standards consistent. I’m sure there’s a spot in the legal budget for this very scenario. They’ll settle just like they did with the “iPhone” name and move on.
That’s the thing. They didn’t trademark the name. Apple bought the trademark from Xcerion.
iCloud Communications is a small minority run company. I am sorry, but I have seen it, many small businesses cut corners.
They don’t have to trademark the name; there are common law trademarks. The problem is proving when you started using the name and what services/products are associated with it.
Filing a trademark does nothing more than provide notice to the rest of the world that you own the name for a particular purpose. It fixes a start date, and it opens the door to additional legal remedies if you have to sue someone for infringing on your mark.
Ok, i get it.
Now, I need help with this one.
iCloud Communications AKA Cloud Communications, product is VoIP.
Apple’s iCloud, is email, document office apps, virtual iTunes.
So where do the lines cross, other than name?
Also to shield them from this issue, should cost less than $4 mill. But who knows.
Yeah it really does not matter how ‘big’ or ‘small’ they are. Really MDN your ‘take’ is a bit on the childish side of things.
If they are a small company, then odds are good they will settle for a decent amount and both sides win. They get some cash and Apple gets the name without issues.
Really if they were big and had deep pockets the whole thing might suck and be a PITA for Apple.
You seem to like the site because you come back again and again to complain about it.
People. Really. Who cares. Let these companies hold their pissing match while you go out for a nice bike ride.
Apple will give them a fair deal. What’s a few million. Is that even a day’s interest on there 69 Billion cash hoarde?
If Apple only had access to the same investment options as most of us, then the company would be fortunate to earn about $750K per day based on current interest rates. But with $69B, Apple doesn’t play with the small investors.
Whoops! Too many zeros – off by a factor of 10. 4% of $69B is close to $2.8B. So the daily take would be on the order of $7.5M. You are right, MacHeadB, give them a couple of hours of interest and move on.
I think Apple would change the name of iCloud before they’d pay $100 million. The original name of Bonjour was Rendezvous and they changed that as a result of a lawsuit.
They can just change the name to Steve’s iSkeletal appearance.