iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China?

[Via mocoNews.net]
trademark posts

As the world's attention turns from netbooks to smartbooks, Psion and Intel have ceased battle over use of the former term. Remember, this ridiculous case escalated to the point of Psion claiming $1.2 billion (billion!) in damages suffered as a result of infringement on its netbook trademark for a product few have heard of outside of the highly specialized supply chain logistics area. The "amicable" agreement reached with Intel has Psion voluntarily withdrawing its trademark. What wasn't said in the press release is how much money was extorted from the industry or the net effect on Psion sales from all the free publicity. Regardless, we're sure it's been a profitable exercise for Psion Teklogix. Now, could the obscure owner of the "smartbook" trademark please step forward to collect your prize?


Well, would you look at that -- our good friend Deutsche Telekom seems to have lost a lawsuit it filed against rival European wireless carrier Telia over its use of the color magenta in its logo. The Danish Eastern Regional High Court today ruled that Telia and DT don't compete directly in the Danish market and that Telia isn't using the same magenta shade, leading the court to overturn an injunction DT sought against Telia's use of the color. On top of that, the court further ruled that Deutsche Telekom has to fork over 1.5M kroner ($316,188) in court costs and attorneys' fees to Telia, which probably stings a little more than having to share a color. Of course, now that magenta is the People's Color, maybe DT should look into playing a little nicer, don't you think?
Quick, what's the best way to dress up an otherwise dry piece on how companies can register non-traditional trademarks? If you answered "mention Apple and the iPod," you're the big winner -- and you've gotten yourself published in the Wall Street Journal. We'll be the first to admit that Apple's January registration of the three-dimensional design of the iPod strains credulity, but the simple fact is that non-traditional trademarks have been around for a while now -- we seem to remember a little kerfuffle regarding magenta recently, but we can't quite recall the exact details. Similarly, Nokia trademarked the 12 notes of its default ringtone back in September (even though they're part of a larger piece written in 1902 called "Gran Vals"), NBC has a mark on its ding-ding-ding station ID, and Coca-Cola has registrations for basically every bottle design it sells. Still, you can bet Apple legal threw quite a pizza party when this mark was approved -- and we can only imagine the kind of buttoned-down corporate lawyer jam that'll go down if the company succeeds in getting a mark on the design of the iPhone, which it's currently applied for. Hope you're ready for some more funktastic control layouts.






