iCloud Communications files lawsuit against Apple over alleged trademark infringement - Page 2

Exactly.

I suppose it's worth a shot at getting some cash out of Apple. Of course if they were to change US law so that the loser in these cases has to pay the legal fees it would put an end to these fishing cases.

imax?

I wonder why they didn't register "icloud.com" back in 2005, instead they use "geticloud.com", maybe the domain was already in use.

The icloud domain now belongs to Apple.

If I'm not mistaken, the original name for Apple TV was iTV and something (someone) forced them to switch to ATV

This all happened pre-launch of ATV

. . . or iGo. 1995
iTouch 1999
iUniverse 1999
and as mentioned, iMax 1996.

There's also iHop, but that probably doesn't count.

In other news, I just squashed a gnat that was buzzing in my ear.

In either 1994 or 1995 I bought an I-Modem. In 1997 I worked for a company that supported the I-Phone (later bought by Cisco, which Apple settled with to use the name AFTER they released their mobile phone).

For a while everything internet related was e-* or i-*. Apple didn't invent the letter "I". It became truly mainstream after the ipod, not the imac..

As my son likes to say, sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

I hope an asteroid crashes in from outer space and hits the iCloud Communications office. It is these stupid things you read about that make me

If you ever wonder why we are still in a recession, it is because people have decided they have nothing better to do with their time and start these sorts of spineless arguments.

I hope the judge slaps the lawyer for iCloud Communications with a dictionary in the hope he might learn what damage to iCloud Communications "ensuing saturation advertising campaign pursued by Apple" means.

iCloud of the clan iCloud.

There can be only one.

e didn't. i did.

There was the iMac first. Then iChat. Then iTunes and the iPod The iSight, iLife, iWork, etc.. etc

But before all the there was the iCEO. in 1997 Jobs was appointed interim CEO of apple and promptly was called the iCEO. A tittle he held for a couple years before becoming the official CEO of apple.

The post that you were responding to had a winking smiley face emoticon at the end. Crack open a dictionary and look up the word "irony" will you?

I swear kids these days have severely impaired irony detectors. Is it because their communication is more through text and IMs than actual verbal conversation?

" e-commerce" was widely used in journalism about the growing internet retailers and other transactions. the "E" was not really used as a product name, but a marketing description and a description of online activities. "electronic" has since given way to "internet".

Of those, iGo is perhaps the only one that preceded the iMac (1998), and I've never heard of it nor remember hearing about it. And it's IMAX, not iMax.

We're not discussing brands that begin with the letter "I". We're referring to the prefix "i" popularized by the iMac.

The prefix "e" or "e-" was much more common, but does not relate except for perhaps inspiring the use of a lowercase letter prefix.

This article should give a description of what this company do or sell or market and not mentioning the name or the least a picture or link. C'mon eh, where's and what use that journalism education you receive years at the university? You never?

In Canada, Apple's iCloud tradename was actually formalized as
an accepted Trademark on June 02, 2011. CIPO Application #1529782.
It was based on prior acceptance of the Jamaican application Dec 2010.
It lists well over 200 different 'services' and 'wares' associated with the claim.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/tr...tIndexOnPage=1

I'm fairly certain it's just "IHOP," for Internation House of Pancakes haha (Speaking of which, there's a road called Cox in my town. There's an IHOP (one of two in my town) located on it. For those with an immature sense of humor like mine, you can probably see why there's a running joke to ask people where they work when we know they work there).

I wonder if this is actually a publicity stunt FOR Apple. I mean, this IS putting their iCloud in the media again? Apple is a master of public relations, and there's no way they would let something this obvious slip. *conspiracy* haha

Apple should counter-sue for the use of "i" in front of the company name. That is definitely theirs.

They'd have to sue every one of their accessory makers, then. That won't be happening.

Nope. You have to register to sue in federal court, which is the only place a trademark/copyright suit can be filed. And the only way you can sue in federal court is with a registration. However, you don't have to register until x days after the first use of the conflicting mark. (I think it's 90 days).

So this other company can still register the mark and win a lawsuit although it obviously would have made a stronger case if they had filed a registration when they first started using it.

But I agree with those who think this will be settled.

Really? Did you read the quoted text in my response?

Try their Apple Fritters... teh delicious!

Apple researched it all right. If there is one thing Apple is good at, it is in the legal department, no matter which side of the fence that they are on.

First off, iCloud Communications did not trademark their name or their logo...oops. There is no record of them doing so in the USPTO. That's pretty piss poor for a company that is self proclaimed as 'global' and has been in operation since 2005. Apple filed for 11 trademark patents for the iCloud name on 6/1/11. So really, the whole things ends right there. iCloud Communications has no federal claim to the name, mark, or any reputation that it represents. They are incorporated, so I guess at least the owner's personal assets are protected when Apple files a countersuit. The USPTO does however list Xcerion as the previous holder, and whom Apple bought the name from. Those guys filed in 2008. $2M is a pretty good payoff for a small time computer program company.

Furthermore, iCloud Communications seems to be a small time telephone answering service in Phoenix. Not sure how they think that Apple's iCloud service parallels their services in any shape or form. Their website menu of services says nothing other than the genre of telephone answering and conferencing, but of course, in their lawsuit, they suddenly grew a couple of departments in the cloud storage area.

The US legal department needs to get serious on these types of frivolous lawsuits, and in the event of a loss, automatically charging the plaintiff with full legal fees incurred by the defendant without the need for a countersuit. That would stop this kind of stuff.

It's a bit more complicated than that!

In the end Apple purchased all of Apple's trademark rights - which is distinct from a settlement.

That's called a phantom trademark and you can't do that. USPTO has rejected that in numerous occasions.

Just ask the XXX for Dummies folks

e-stuff definitely was, email gave rise to e-commerce and e-everything-else. That's without getting into the fact that the 90s was the decade of E in the other sense.

i-stuff however, I can't think of any significant i-stuff that wasn't apple, especially lowercase i followed by a capital. Only acronyms like IT, which is clearly a different kettle of iFish.

I'm not saying that apple own everything 'i'-prefixed, they obviously don't - but they did popularize the meme.

I get really worn out by constant lawsuits by patent trolls. That being said, if anyone here, you know, actually looked at this company's website they would see that this company also offers datacenter services as well. There's a link on the upper-right to their datacenter site. I'm sure that is what is at the crux of their complaints against Apple.

Was this company foolish that they didn't apply for trademarks on the "iCloud" name? Incredibly. It's inexplicable, but it's also irrelevant. All they have to do is show that they were using the name first. I think that there will be a settlement/acquisition before this drags out for too long.

It's not quite irrelevant because they had allowed somebody else to claim the TM and operate a cloud service under it. It's a fundamental of TM law that you have to defend your TM. You can't wait around for a richer target the way that a patent holder can.

In essence that is why the beatles HAD to take Apple to court back in the 80s, if they hadn't they would have been open to losing their TMs on 'Apple', even though they originally only got 80k from Apple Computers, they demonstrated that they were actively defending their rights.

I'm sure Apple will settle for an obscene amount of money, the senior stakeholders of iCloud will all approve the settlement, fold the company, lay off all the employees and enjoy their new found wealth.

It's the American way!

Right...Apple and their legal team just forgot to research it. This isn't middle school. They didn't forget anything.


No. Apple had to settle and promise not to go into the "music business." This is why the dispute came up again when they introduced the iTunes Music Store.


Not necessarily.


That's highly unlikely. They are two different products. Legally speaking, it takes more than having the same name.

On the other hand, you gotta wonder if this company's whole reason for naming themselves iCloud was simply in anticipation that Apple would soon pick the name and they could cash in.[/quote]

No one was talking about "the cloud" when they got that name.


More than likely, yes.


I think iCloud will probably go away with zero money.

This...good point.

apple bullies and sues everyone else about trademarks etc so i wish them good luck.