According to what I read, Fujitsu had a trademark on a 2003 product they called an iPad. In 2009, that trademark was either declared invalid or was in the process of being declared abandoned, and Fujitsu started making some weak efforts to revive it. Also, the Fujitsu iPad was some kind of bar code reader, which might be sufficiently different from Apple's device that their trademark might have no legal bearing on Apple's.
One of the little bits that I think I understand about patents is that they aren't automatically held in perpetuity. The trademark holder cannot just hold the trademark for very long without using it, and they have to uniformly and credibly defend it against all infringements. Failure to observe these principles can lead to loss of trademark protection. A famous case of this was in the 90's when a the LA Dodgers lost the Brooklyn Dodgers trademark in a long court fight. Also, the same trademark can be held by several businesses as long as there is no danger of confusion between them, which is why Apple Records had little hope of prevailing against Apple Computer on trademark grounds before Apple Computer started getting into the music business, and by that point Apple Records was no longer really an active brand and was just a musical properties holding company. Unlike the situation with patents, it is much harder to warehouse a slew of trademarks with the idea that you might find it useful some day. Good thing, too, or else the big companies would try to trademark every possible character combination that they could, and Steve Jobs might instead have been announcing the new iWHARRGARBL. On Jan 29, 2010, at 4:34 PM, COMPUTERGUYS-L automatic digest system wrote: > From: Stewart Marshall <revsamarsh...@earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: You Saw the Demo? Are you impressed? > > Apple has fond a marketing niche with the i format. McDonald's has > done it with the Mc format. (I read about a lawsuit recently where > they are attempting to shut down a young ladies fund raising > organization as it uses the Mc format for their name) > > It makes someone identify with them whenever they hear the i moniker. > > The question comes up did they do enough research about the name > before hand and did they have the right people involved. Right now > it does not seem so. > > I read an article where Fuji has had an ipad for some time now, and > the English (Irish and others) are not too happy as it can be > confusing in dialects. > > I know it is impossible to please 100% of the people 100% of the > time. (remember what my job is) > > However I think the name could have used a lot more research than it > looks like it got. > > Stewart > ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
