Tiger Direct sues Apple over Tiger

So it looks it's Apple's turn to be on the receiving end of the lawsuit this time: Tiger Direct has slapped a lawsuit on the computer company over the name of its new operating system, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. They're asking for a court injunction to halt the rollout of Apple's new OS, scheduled for tomorrow. Tiger Direct feels their trademarked name is being diluted by Apple "overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references" (we're overwhelmed — are you?). At the heart of the issue are internet search results: Tiger Direct has been bumped from its usual spot in the top three in both Google and Yahoo for a search on "Tiger." They claim Apple's use of the name is "causing confusion, mistake and deception among the general purchasing public." Why they've suddenly realized this today and not in any of the months and months prior during which Apple has been widely publicizing its OS would be a valid question. But maybe they have something here, you know, because we could see how the company most often accused of developing overpriced luxury hardware could get easily confused with the company most often associated with selling dirt-cheap OEM PCs and peripherals. Plus, it's really hard to tell the difference between an operating system and an online merchant. Yeah, come to think of it, we're really confused.

[Thanks, Joshua]