Actually, I'm guessing that Fujitsu will settle with Apple for a large sum of cash and walk away laughing their asses off knowing that they dodged a bullet with the piss poor iPad name.
After all the jokes about MaxiPad, Fujitsu would have to be insane to stick with the name.
Thats what happened with Ciscos iphone, but with Fujitsu I apple won't get out as cheap.
With Cisco it was pretty much no brainer when they sold the iphone name. The product was nearly dead anyway, and as the phones were going to wireless anyway there was no reason to keep the name. Just get maximum amount of cash from Apple.
With Fujitsu things are different. With the publicity apple got for ipad name the names value has increased for Fujitsu, and Fujitsu is going to stay as a computer maker. Wouldn't surprice me a bit if they released similar product soon. So the name has value to Fujitsu, and didn't for Cisco.
With name apple has painted themself into a corner. If they claim ipad is too close to ipod they might loose the ipod name too for Mag-Tek. And Fujitsu has used the name before in their product so they have precedence.
Whats even worse is that this is only for US market. I'm willing to bet that Fujitsu has registered the name for other markets, and MagTek hasn't. I'd guess Japan and bigger european countries like Germany, England and France at least.
So even if Apple got their will through in US in many other markets the name ipad would be illegal. So apple will have to do a lot of sweettalking and brown nosing to Fujitsu to get the name. Worse case scenario for apple is that dispute drags on for several years which is quite possible.
So this is a win-win for Fujitsu. They have pretty good claim for the name, and probably registered it in other markets. If they can register the name for them it's good for them. If apple tries to blog it Fujitsu can contest the blog giving some FUD to apple which directly competes with Fujitsu products.
I'd say apple will lose tens of millions or more, and Fujitsu will get equal rights to the name. This short names arent cheap.
@newone No, they HAD a claim. The claim officially RAN OUT unsatisfied BEFORE it was officially granted. Basically, Fujitsu didn't contest the application cancelation until they saw somebody else trying to snipe it. Apple sniped it fair and square.... just like when you don't pay for a domain name you "planned" to use.
@mabhatter You seem to not know how USPTO things work. Precedence counts for more than the actual registration. McDonalds lost to a company called McCurry even though McDonalds is probably older and much bigger. They sued McCurry because they felt the name violated their McDonalds "too similar" name, but lost. I knew someone sued by Bose, but he told them to "shove it" since he had prior art years before even without a patent.
Fujitsu has precedence for so many years with the product being sold and used since 2002. Even Apple Stores use the Fujitsu iPad, though they are moving to ipod touch devices with a scanner bolted on.
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I hope Fujitsu wins.
@Alan Smithee
Actually, I'm guessing that Fujitsu will settle with Apple for a large sum of cash and walk away laughing their asses off knowing that they dodged a bullet with the piss poor iPad name.
After all the jokes about MaxiPad, Fujitsu would have to be insane to stick with the name.
@Spiny Norman
Thats what happened with Ciscos iphone, but with Fujitsu I apple won't get out as cheap.
With Cisco it was pretty much no brainer when they sold the iphone name. The product was nearly dead anyway, and as the phones were going to wireless anyway there was no reason to keep the name. Just get maximum amount of cash from Apple.
With Fujitsu things are different. With the publicity apple got for ipad name the names value has increased for Fujitsu, and Fujitsu is going to stay as a computer maker. Wouldn't surprice me a bit if they released similar product soon. So the name has value to Fujitsu, and didn't for Cisco.
With name apple has painted themself into a corner. If they claim ipad is too close to ipod they might loose the ipod name too for Mag-Tek. And Fujitsu has used the name before in their product so they have precedence.
Whats even worse is that this is only for US market. I'm willing to bet that Fujitsu has registered the name for other markets, and MagTek hasn't. I'd guess Japan and bigger european countries like Germany, England and France at least.
So even if Apple got their will through in US in many other markets the name ipad would be illegal. So apple will have to do a lot of sweettalking and brown nosing to Fujitsu to get the name. Worse case scenario for apple is that dispute drags on for several years which is quite possible.
So this is a win-win for Fujitsu. They have pretty good claim for the name, and probably registered it in other markets. If they can register the name for them it's good for them. If apple tries to blog it Fujitsu can contest the blog giving some FUD to apple which directly competes with Fujitsu products.
I'd say apple will lose tens of millions or more, and Fujitsu will get equal rights to the name. This short names arent cheap.
@newone No, they HAD a claim. The claim officially RAN OUT unsatisfied BEFORE it was officially granted. Basically, Fujitsu didn't contest the application cancelation until they saw somebody else trying to snipe it. Apple sniped it fair and square.... just like when you don't pay for a domain name you "planned" to use.
@mabhatter You seem to not know how USPTO things work. Precedence counts for more than the actual registration. McDonalds lost to a company called McCurry even though McDonalds is probably older and much bigger. They sued McCurry because they felt the name violated their McDonalds "too similar" name, but lost. I knew someone sued by Bose, but he told them to "shove it" since he had prior art years before even without a patent.
Fujitsu has precedence for so many years with the product being sold and used since 2002. Even Apple Stores use the Fujitsu iPad, though they are moving to ipod touch devices with a scanner bolted on.