Hasta La Gadget!

You might be sitting atop a pile of cash that would take far too many lifetimes to spend, and your company’s stock, while battered for a bit, is still the envy of many other companies out there, but regardless of the apparent power that you seemingly wield in the tech world, you will still not gain an inch from Brazil’s copyright regulator. Yes sir, I am referring to Apple Inc. being stripped of the right to use their iPhone trademark in Brazil, which so happens to be Latin America’s largest market, as the trademark was granted instead to a local company which registered it first.

Never heard of Gradiente Eletronica SA before? Well, this Brazilian consumer electronics maker is sure to get a whole lot more famous from now on, as they registered the “iphone” name all the way back in the year 2000, a good seven years before Apple actually rolled out their first iPhone. The Brazilian Institute of Intellectual Property will make an official announcement of its decision a day before Valentine’s Day. Needless to say, we are not ruling out the possibility of Apple challenging the ruling in the Brazilian court.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Evad3rs Shares Some Information On How Their Jailbreak Works, Samsung And Amazon Beat Apple In Consumer Loyalty Index,

Apple’s retail stores, just like Starbucks, is pretty iconic in terms of its design, the choice of furniture, the colors and its layout, and it seems that Apple has been successfully granted a trademark over the layout of their store and its design! This trademark was originally applied for back in 2010 and was successfully granted about a week ago. According to the trademark’s description, “There are cantilevered shelves below recessed display spaces along the side walls, and rectangular tables arranged in a line in the middle of the store parallel to the walls and extending from the storefront to the back of the store.”

Most, if not all of Apple’s retail stores adhere to this layout, albeit with minor changes depending on the size of the location, but it is safe to say that regardless of which country you’re in, you can expect to find a similar shopping experience whenever you walk into an Apple retail store. In fact some of Apple’s competitors have tried to mimic the design i.e. Microsoft, and spotted in China awhile back were fake Apple stores where the layout was pretty much copied to the letter.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sprint To Carry 128GB iPad 4, iCalc Bluetooth Calculator Keypad Magnetically Works With An Apple Wireless Keyboard,

It’s been awhile since we last had news from Apple’s App Store-based trademark infringement lawsuit against Amazon. Today, Amazon got Apple’s claim for false advertising dismissed from that very same case after filing for partial summary judgement. In finding for Amazon, the judge held that Apple failed to identify a single false statement (expressly stated or implied) that Amazon made about the nature, characteristics, or quality of the Amazon Appstore that would deceive customers into thinking it was the same as the Apple App Store — a legal requirement to establish false advertising under federal law. Not a bad way for Bezos to ring in the new year, eh?

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple, Amazon

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: Court Order [PDF]

In today’s installment of “words you didn’t know could be trademarked,” we’ll focus in on Apple and its relationship with a motorcycle manufacturer by the name of Harley-Davidson. Apple’s “Lightning” branding for its new dock connector certainly plays nice with the company’s “Thunderbolt” branding, but in new EU Trademark filings discovered by Patently Apple, we’re finding out that the iPod maker had to talk to Harley-Davidson before it could use the word lightning for its products. That’s because Harley-Davidson owns the trademark for lightning in a lot of different areas, including motorcycle parts, video games, and even glasses.

Harley-Davidson’s trademark for the word lightning remains protected until 2013, so if Apple wanted to call its new dock connector Lightning, it was going to have to get Harley-Davidson’s permission first. That’s exactly what happened, with Harley-Davidson granting Apple a “partial transfer” of the trademark. This means that Apple is free to use the trademark, but Harley-Davidson retains some rights to use it with its own products too.

It never really occurred to use that Apple would need to request a trademark transfer, since “lightning” doesn’t seem like one of those terms that companies can trademark. In any case, the transfer was apparently completed over the weekend, so Apple has partial rights to the Lightning trademark from here on out. We’re not sure what’s going to happen when the trademark’s protection ends in 2013, but we’re sure that Harley-Davidson and Apple will be able to reach another agreement when the time comes.

After all, it isn’t as if Apple would need to use the trademark for motorcycle parts, just as we’re assuming that Harley-Davidson isn’t going to use it for iOS dock connectors anytime soon. We’ll have to see how this all pans out in the future, but for now, Apple and Harley-Davidson apparently don’t have any issues with sharing the rights to the trademark. Check out our story timeline below for more on Lightning!

Apple had to go through Harley-Davidson for Lightning trademark is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re a fan of the movies in The Lord of the Rings franchise or the original Tolkien books you might be interested in this report. The estate of the late author has sued Warner Bros. alleging that the movie company is overstepping its rights when it comes to merchandising The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien estate is upset over virtual goods.

Tolkien’s estate filed a suit against Warner Brothers in Los Angeles District Court earlier this week seeking $80 million in damages. The Tolkien estate is joined in the suit by book publisher HarperCollins in alleging that Warner Bros., New Line, and the rights holder to the movies Saul Zaentz Co have infringed on copyrights owned by the estate and breached contract.

The source of the ire against Warner Bros. comes from the fact that the rights agreement Warner has enables them to create only tangible merchandise based on the books. However, Warner Bros. has apparently launched some sort of online slot machine and other digital offerings that the state finds offensive. The estate says that its attorney learned of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Online Slot Game via a spam e-mail sent to its attorney in 2010.

The estate says that after an investigation into that machine it learned that Warner Bros. is planning traditional slot machines with characters from the books and other products outside the limited original rights deal. The estate and the book publisher are seeking an injunction against infringing games and $80 million in damages. It appears that downloadable video games for mobile devices and Facebook are also being targeted by the Tolkien estate.

[via Hollywood Reporter]

Tolkien estate sues over The Lord of the Rings slot machines is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.