Apple sued over use of \'Tiger\', injunction sought

  • updated 04:05 pm EDT, Thu April 28, 2005
  •         by MacNN Staff

Apple sued over \'Tiger\'

Apple has been sued by for allegedly infringing its trademark with the Mac OS X 'Tiger', according to Bloomberg. Tiger Direct sells computers and related products on the Internet; it says the Apple's software package, marketing, and use of Tiger in the company's forthcoming operating system, threatens to dilute its trademarked 'Tiger' name. It also accused Apple of deceptive and unfair trade practices in the federal lawsuit filed in a Miami court. "Apple Computer has created and launched a nationwide media blitz led by Steven Jobs, overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references," according to the lawsuit. Bloomberg says that court injunction, if granted, could halt the rollout of new Mac OS X Tiger operating system, which will be officially released tomorrow.

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.

TAGS
TOTAL_COMMENTS Comments
  1. kentuckyfried 04/28, 04:11pm

    This is ridiculous...raising issue with this name trademark the day before OS 10.4 is to be released.

  1. CambAngst 04/28, 04:11pm

    TigerDirect is obnoxious. If you order 1 thing from them, they flood you with junk mail and junk email forever.

  1. Feeling_Macish 04/28, 04:14pm

    If Tiger Direct had been viewing this as a real infringement, they would have warned Apple as soon as the nickname "Tiger" was put into play. Did they say a word? no, because they WANTED it to get to this point, beyond the "point of no return" for Apple, therefore sealing the deal as far as a lawsuit goes. And BTW, it was obvious for years that the nicknames for the major iterations of OSX were using "big cat" names - Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger - even before "Tiger" was announced as the next cat, Tiger Direct could have called up Apple and said: "Steve, it looks like you are using big jungle cat names - you wouldn't be planning to use 'tiger' somewhere down the line, would you?"

    Case dismissed.

  1. pnypwrmb76 04/28, 04:18pm

    Might as well sue Tiger Woods too.

  1. legacyb4 04/28, 04:21pm

    Tigerdirect.com is the only reference to Tiger I see on their website. A search for "Tiger" on their website reveals a whopping 8 products (the single software product is a Tiger Woods golf game)including memory products listed as "POWERMAC G5/2000 DP 512MB-160GB SD ATI9600 TIGER"; just a reseller trying to make a quick buck off of Apple.

    Lame...

  1. ugotabkdin 04/28, 04:24pm

    Say whatever you want about Tiger Direct...they "should have dont" this or that. And the fact is they don't HAVE to do anything, they don't have to contact Apple to "make sure" they wont use "tiger"...what, all other companies have to pay attention to what APPLE is doing down the road? morons. It is APPLE'S job to make sure they aren't doing anything that can be legitimately challenged in court, NOT everyone else's to somehow find out Apple's plans, and to collaborate somehow. What a joke. And Tiger can choose to sue whenever they want, and the courts can decide the merits of the case.

    I hope they lose, but seriously folks...don't get all righteous just because someone is trying to p*** on your parade.

  1. ncube 04/28, 04:24pm

    revealed only one company with a registered trademark for the use of the name "tiger" in software category "Elbit Systems Ltd". Filing Date Feb. 2005

  1. Stecchino 04/28, 04:30pm

    " Might as well sue Tiger Woods too."

    Good one. :-)

  1. shadowself 04/28, 04:31pm

    Any competent judge will throw this suit out.

    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.

  1. lemuel777 04/28, 04:33pm

    All this does is give Apple more publicity, goood or bad. The more publicity the better. Rock on Apple. Grrrrrrowwwwwwl

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