“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.”