Apple may settle iCloud trademark lawsuit says legal expert

Apple may settle a trademark lawsuit with iCloud Communications according to patent and trademark lawyer Brad Salai of Harter Secrest & Emery law firm. Apple was slapped with a trademark infringement lawsuit following its big iCloud announcement at WWDC last week. The company, iCloud Communications LLC, claims part of its business focuses on cloud computing, and Apple's new service is confusingly similar.

It's an interesting lawsuit from a legal standpoint. Apple has filed 11 applications for the iCloud trademark and purchased the right to an existing trademark as well as the domain iCloud.com from Xcerion.

A USPTO database search suggests iCloud Communications has not registered for the iCloud trademark. It also uses geticloud.com for its domain. The Arizona company will have to argue that it has a common law right to use the trademark.

In Salai's opinion, Apple will likely settle a small lawsuit to get iCloud Communications out of the way. If the Arizona company pushes for a large monetary settlement that prevents Apple from using the iCloud name, the Cupertino company will take its chances in court.

[Via The Loop]

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Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217586/Apple_likely_…

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Apple may settle a trademark lawsuit with iCloud Communications according to patent and trademark lawyer Brad Salai of Harter Secrest...

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Albert

Think about to register trademark in Asia like Trademark in Malaysia http://www.tigerintellectual.com , Trademark in Singapore

August 20 2011 at 3:33 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

iRant

What I don't get is why Apple doesn't trademark the 'i' concept entirely. People are popping up left right and center with iThis and iThat names for products and services, knowing full well that one day Apple might want to use the name. All they see is 'woo, big company, lots of money - might want this one day, so I can name my price!' And they think their so smart in doing so. It's a cop-out!

Come up with your OWN original ideas! Stop feeding off other sucessful people.

July 25 2011 at 7:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Graham J

Regardless of the mitigating circumstances it doesn't take a "legal expert" to figure that Apple would try to settle.

This is news?

June 14 2011 at 2:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Buzz Mega

Wait a moment. Apple has owned "iCloud.com" since 1999. The upstart iCloud Communications "geticloud.com" has only been around since 2009, if their copyright notices are an indicator.

Apple: Squish them.

June 14 2011 at 1:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Buzz Mega's comment

notafanboy

Your a ******* retard apple has owned it since 2011...

June 14 2011 at 6:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jamie W

Surely they don't stand a chance of winning against Apple unless they can prove the previous holder of the iCloud trademark had paid licensing fees. Apple has just acquired it from the company now using CloudMe so why didn't this company face problems. Could it be a $60bn company now owns it?

June 14 2011 at 1:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kevin

people pay the fees to rightful own **** , so that way when bricks like Steve Job & company come along try to take what you own you can tell him to go **** himself & take his **** products with him.

June 14 2011 at 11:54 AM Report abuse Permalink -3 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to kevin's comment

Mike B

Did you even read the article? It says they have not even registered for the trademark. They didn't pay anything.

June 14 2011 at 12:06 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply

delimo

their name is not even "iCloud Communications" as it seems on their website, but "I Cloud Communications". you can verify this in the company-database of arizona ... wtf!?

June 14 2011 at 11:06 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply