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Topic: Apple

Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

Summary: Apple is moving forward with its plans to launch a TV -- but what will it be called? Certainly not iTV says the independent UK broadcaster.

Eileen Brown

By Eileen Brown for Social Business |

Update: See below

Apple is moving forward with its plans to launch a TV set -- but what will it be called?  Certainly not iTV says the independent UK broadcaster.

Apple has been rumoured to be launching its hotly anticipated TV set as early as April this year.  TV companies in Canada are vying for the right to be launch partners when, and if, the TV Set launches.

ITV (Independent TeleVision) has been using its name for a long time.

ITV has been broadcasting since 1955 and is the original terrestrial commercial channel in the UK.  It has never changed its name, not rebranded. Instead the ITV portfolio has increased as other TV stations were acquired by the company.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of ITV has already been in contact with Apple over the issue and 'received assurances' that Apple would not use the name in the UK.  ITV has a 'very strong brand and highly valued IP' in the UK.

However, with new leadership at Apple, things might change.  Tim Cook, the new CEO might see things differently.  Apple has fallen into a pattern of naming new products with the prefix 'i' so it seems natural to assume that any new TV set would follow the same branding.  ITV has 'vigorously defended' its brand in the past.

Buying names

But of course, Apple could just pay ITV for the use of the trademark. Apple is no stranger to trademark battles.  It lost the use of the iPad trademark in China in December after obtaining it from Fujitsu.

It is not the first time that Apple has had to pay for the use of a name.  Cisco owned the trademark name iPhone until an agreement between the two companies in early 2007.  Cisco clearly had a trademark on the iPhone.  Now the name is used by both companies.

But with which company do you associate the iPhone name?

It has even been speculated that Apple, which has lots of money, could buy the TV channel just to use the ITV name freely.

Or perhaps it will use the iTV name anyway, and assume that the name will become as ubiquitous as the other 'i' brands.

Which might be what Apple assumes will happen anyway.

Update:

ITV has denied that there is any truth in the reports in the Telegraph today.  ITV said that "The Telegraph's piece is entirely speculative, and there has been no communication between ITV and Apple. ITV has no further comment on the matter."

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16 comments
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  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    Completely speculative. Apple has already said they won't use it in the UK; there is no reason to think they would except to sensationalize the topic and rile readers. You would have been better targeting these baseless attacks on Samsung.
    Socratesfoot
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    They went through this, when they launched the original Apple TV. It was announced as the Apple iTV at the keynote, only to drop the "i" before it was launched, because ITV contacted them and said "not on your Nelly" in a very British accent.
    wright_is
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    They could just call it the iTelly for the UK. Isn't "telly" how a TV is referred to over there? Anyway, that's what movies let us think (never been to the UK so I can't tell).
    lepoete73
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    They'd be better to continue using "Apple TV" then to change it to something else. With Apple TV they have brand recognition.
    IAmMarty
    Reply Vote

  • Apple TV? No...?

    Don't you remember this when they were launching the Apple TV?

    The whole point was that it was called iTV before it's official launch, it's codename, then they changed it for this exact reason.

    Steve even called it iTV in a Keynote by accident.

    Wonder what they will call it though. They'll probably just sue the sh*t out of them and claim they invented and patented the TV.
    Naryan
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

      @Naryan- Apple has made their business what it is by claiming to have "invented" technology after technology after technology... But apparently, Apple simply "borrows" the work of other companies, dumbs it down for the "masses" and then markets the h**l out of it with claims that it's immune to viruses and trojans (which we know isn't true) ot that it's "magical" and so easy to use that even your 6 year old (or younger) can use it all by thenselves. To quote 'the church lady'- "Isn't that special".
      xplorer1959
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

        @xplorer1959 <br>For the masses who might want easier tech, and the pros who can see getting something done in fewer steps (I and many others believe this is called efficiency) as an asset to any marketable good, is desireable. Not to mention when you can market to a consumer as young as 6 (or younger) your company is bound to be more successful. Apple may not have invented the technology but as for design and execution of it, they are a clear winner.
        partman1969@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

        @xplorer1959 I'm having a hard time identifying if some of this is sarcasm or not. Apple claims it's "so easy to use that even your 6 year old (or younger) can use it all by thenselves" [sic]. Are you saying they're lying, and 4- 5- and 6-year olds can't use it by themselves? So all those YouTube videos are fake? And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have an intuitive user interface on my phone than, say, a command-line; based on your claims that Apple's dumbing technology down for the 'masses' it seems you'd rather we were all still looking at green text on a black screen, because it's not 'dumbed down.' Remember - Apple brought the Graphical User Interface into the mainstream, by 'dumbing down' technology.
        Johnny5k
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

        @xplorer1959
        Ha ha, I've photos of my grandson happily getting to grips with a PS/2 when he was only three. But you can't beat apple marketing
        otherhalf@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

        @xplorer1959 is an old-school wintard who believes everything done on a computer must be a struggle and hard. What a lot of wasted energy!
        ScorpioBlue
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    I for one hate the acronym anyway. Apple TV, iVision or just about anything else is better than "iTV".
    Playdrv4me
    Reply Vote

  • go for both

    what about iAppleTV? or is that just silly
    cwallen19803@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    I don't think Apple will feel obligated to continue to use the 'i' nomenclature in a TV. They've already broken from it with some of their hardware products: the MacBook, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and Apple TV. Since there isn't really a good i-term for a TV, at least not that I can think of (iScreen, iView, iTele, iVision, iPlayer, iPortal, iPort, iVideoPlaybackMachine); my guess is they'll stick with Apple TV, or come up with something nobody expects, like they did with the [s]iSlate[/s] [s]iTablet[/s] [s]iTab[/s] iPad. In any case, I'd be surprised to see it called iTV.. although, they do have plenty of money to buy that name, or the entire company, if that is what they want to call it.
    Johnny5k
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    Well I don't remember ITV being used as a brand until the merger of Granada and Carlton ten years ago, so not really "using its name for a long time". I do remember ATV, HTV, ITN, STV and YTV being used along with Meridien, Ulster, Westward, Associated Rediffusion, London Weekend, TWW, WWN, Harlech etc.
    Zoodle
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

      @Zoodle - Your memory is letting you down or you need to work on your math. Was 1955 only 10 years ago?

      http://www.itvplc.com/about/history/

      "Following the Television Act of 1954 which made commercial television in the UK possible, ITV first began broadcasting in 1955 on Channel 3 in the London area."
      otherhalf@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple warned off brand-jacking UK TV company name

    For a long time Auntie had better programs than ITV and still does in some respects.
    Dr BobM
    Reply Vote
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