04/28/2005, 4:05pm, EDT
Thursday, April 28th
Apple sued over use of 'Tiger', injunction sought
According to the lawsuit, Tiger Direct has used its family of 'Tiger' trademarks to sell computers (and computer-related products) since 1987 and the company has trademarked the names Tiger, TigerDirect and TigerSoftware--which it uses in about 25 million catalogs it sends out each year. The direct retailer said Apple's use of 'Tiger' is "causing confusion, mistake and deception among the general purchasing public."
The company says that Apple's use of Tiger has changed internet search results, directly impacting its ability to market product to its customers. The company alleges that Apple's use of the name has adversely affected its ranking among the internet's largest search engines, Google and Yahoo, bumping the company from its usual spot in the first three results.
Tiger Direct has asked the federal court to block Apple from using the name and is also seeking damages and legal fees, according to the report.
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Case dismissed.
Lame...
I hope they lose, but seriously folks...don't get all righteous just because someone is trying to poop on your parade.
Good one. :-)
Trademarks are very different from patents and copyrights. You must defend them when you know they are being infringed or else lose the right to sue to defend them.
Apple has been publicly calling this version of OS X Tiger for over a year now. Apple ACTIVELY promoted the new version of OS X as being called Tiger at the 2004 WWDC including large banners. I'm sure Apple can prove that there was reasonable expectation that Tiger Direct has known about Apple's use of the term Tiger for a year or more. Tiger Direct did not elect to try to defend its trademark until the day befor OS X Tiger is officially released. Thus for over a year they elected to not go after Apple's use of the Tiger term. They have thus given up their rights to do so.