Apple in touchy trademark trouble again?
Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. -- Douglas Adams, HHGTTG
HTC owns a worldwide trademark on "HTC Touch", the company said Friday, but would not comment on whether or not it will take legal action against the new "iPod touch" the way Cisco did over the iPhone. A trademark search by ZDNet failed to turn up the HTC registration, but it did find 2,042 other registered trademarks containing "touch", including these two:
- Tyco Electronics registered ITOUCH in 2002 (filed in 1999) for "CRT and flat panel displays in which the display surface functions as a touch sensor; and software drivers, controllers and user manuals sold as a unit therewith" (reg#2594753).
- Logitech registered ITOUCH in 2003 (filed in 1999) on computer hardware and software used for "image manipulation", "producing sound", or just generally used "in connection with electronic transmission of video, audio, and data across global, wide area and local area computer networks" (reg#2715978).
Trademarks are case insensitive, so ITOUCH and iTouch are the same thing. If you're in the market for a music and video player, are "iTouch" and "iPod touch" confusingly similar? Hmm... I'm sure this question will be keeping Steve Jobs awake tonight.
An expression of deep worry and concern failed to cross either of Zaphod's faces. -- HHGTTG