ITV set for legal battle with Apple?
D.M.N.
Posts: 34,171 Forum Member
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http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/34908/itv-apple-itv-trademark-rumour
"ITV has a very strong brand, and a highly valued IP", Mike Large, acting group director of Communications at ITV, has exclusively told Pocket-lint.
The comments come in light of the Apple rumours, and we stress rumours, that it is rebranding its Apple TV device as "iTV" around the globe, to better fit with its "i" prefixed branding.
"We have a large number of registered trademarks for ITV and are a household brand of over 50 years", Large was keen to stress when we asked whether the broadcaster would take on Apple if it used the iTV moniker.
Although ITV repeatedly told us that it wouldn't be drawn into commenting directly on whether or not it will actively fight Apple - if the Cupertino based company does in fact use iTV - Large did confirm that it has "vigorously defended" it's IP in the past.
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My money is on apple winning
how can Apple win a trademark infringment dispute over the use of the term i/ITV???
Apple would need to demonstrate considerable ownership over the trademark for the judge to swing in their favour - ITV as a brand exists in the UK, not worldwide, so I can see the US market accepting iTV as their Apple service because ITV don't (as far as I know) have any recognised presence over in America.
Apple would either have to concede they can't launch it or refer to the service ongoing as iTV in the UK and use the Apple TV as their branding here, or they could simply play hardball and not launch it at all in the UK. If they did that, Apple effectively "win" in their own right (they're under no obligation to launch their products in the UK, so they're hardly breaking any rules by not doing so) and that could lead to the more ignorant parts of the UK public who don't understand brandings or the legalities of this situation to hold the view that ITV was some big bad TV company who wouldn't let Apple come here and trade with their latest product.
Thing is, I don't know how Apple TV/iTV would take off over here, as that would be ANOTHER service that doesn't fit in with the likes of Canvas/Seesaw/BT Vision/Virgin Media and their IPTV/cable offerings, but would be competing for the same market
Apple would unquestionably lose.
But all that means is that the rumour that Apple is going to call the box iTV isn't true.
Phazer
Might as well just give me your money.
*drumroll*
THE iVIZ
oh look, a drum rolling .....
now where's my 50 bazillion pounds???
the ITV brand is well known here, even changing it to iTV is not enough.
It is hard to see ITV backing down though.
Iain
The two are well-matched.
Its a win/win for ITV, they either win the court case and get loads of money or allow apple to use it but receive a massive pay off.
This is still just an unfounded rumor, but I think Apple will probably win if Steve Jobs has decided finally in his mind he wants to call it iTV, he's become quite dogmatic, a little crazy, and turned into a kind of lunatic caricature of what he used to be. Apple are sitting on about $40,000,000,000 of cash, and the last I saw ITV's total market cap was around $3-4 billion. And if we have learned anything it's that someone with more cash than God, can do anything they want.
Apple sell tat?
which products would you say were Apple's Top 3 of Tat....?
when you say the iPhone 4 is broken, which part doesn't work?
Iain
The phone
The internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/30/pa_consulting_group_iphone_4_tests/
The proximity sensor.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/iphone_proximity_sensor_complaints/
Not to mention that a small drop results in the whole phone looking like a car windscreen after an accident.
Apples products are designed for fashion victims that must have the last product no matter what. It doesnt have to work, it just has to be shiny.
How much?
Sounds like a good name for it.
And the Nano. The Ipods are small enough themselves. Why do you want something that if it slipped down the back of one's gym shorts it'd disappear up their crack and never resurface?
Oh, and nothing Apple make can do Flash video!!
I found that the Ipod Nano was easy to lose but the Ipod touch is brilliant. I'm getting a MacBook Pro in a week or two and my mum wants the Ipad so I don't really mind Apple products.
Doesn't their production arm produce Hells Kitchen and Supernanny over there as well?