The Woolworths department store chain in Australia is being taken to court by Apple due to their new logo… looking too much like Apple’s. Apple is required by law to defend their trademarks, lest they lose them, and they’re concerned Woolworth may sell computers (or smartphones?) under the new, Apple-esque logo.
If the stylized W in Woolworths’ logo didn’t have that little leaf on top, we’d think Apple was a little over-litigious. As it is, we’re not sure why the W needs a leaf, or if it looks more like an Apple than the “Great Pumpkin” from Charlie Brown (maybe Peanuts can sue as well?)
Take a look at the comparisons above and let us know how close you think the logos are.
[via AppleInsider]
Apple Insider says:
A new lawsuit from a Beverly Hills, Calif., man alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian mafia to secretly track him, transmit threatening messages to his iPod, and insert the word “herpes” into the song “Still Tippin’” by Mike Jones.
We say: forgetaboutit.
Seriously, though, get the man some help, not a lawyer.
Sigh.
Fortune scoop’let’ed the story: the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes. No, not like a dumb USB disk. Not even like a 3rd party-enabled BlackBerry on the PC. Somehow, when Jon Rubinstein joined Palm, someone at Apple forgot to frisk him for iTunes keys.
Our friends over at PreCentral.net, of course, are all over this:
If the Pre does indeed just show up as a standard device on iTunes, it would be big news — but it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Apple has allowed other OEMs to license the necessary APIs to talk directly to iTunes so they can show up as a device. If you take a gander at the list of compatible players on Apple’s support site, you’ll see that Rio players, Nomad Players, and others will all work with iTunes directly (not to mention various Motorola phones).
Still, the level of integration purportedly available to the Pre makes us feel more than a little violated. Did Apple really license them that deep a hook into the system? Given the existence of one Steven P. Jobs, we somehow doubt that. But if not, which 3rd party hook did Palm embed, is it all nice and legal, and how — if at all — will Apple react?
We know! At WWDC Phil Schiller will announce — iPhone compatibility with Palm Desktop!!
Ahem
We typically don’t follow every little Apple or AT&T lawsuit that closely because, frankly, there are too many of them and the frivolity of some just harshens our collective mellow. Case in point, according to Apple Insider:
Apple, AT&T and several others have been named in a new patent infringement lawsuit, presumably for their connection to Shazam, a maker of music identification software distributed under the same name for the iPhone and several other mobile devices.
The suit was brought by Tune Hunter, Inc. Assuming their case has merit, why sue Apple and AT&T instead of focusing on the actual Shazam app in question? Tune Hunter claims it’s because the iPhone duo are contributing to the infringement. For our part, we couldn’t help but notice Apple especially is contributing towards having tons of money.
They’re also suing Samsung, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, LG Electronics, Pantech Wireless, and Verizon.
Apple Insider reports that the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) is helping OdioWorks LLC file suit in an attempt to get Apple to stop threatening to sue them. Complicated much?
OdioWorks, which runs the free and open wiki service BluWiki, wants to bar Apple from repeatedly threatening its own legal action simply for letting BluWiki users host a wiki for iTunesDB, a project to learn about iTunes’ database file system and create third-party software that can replicate the sync functionality of iTunes for iPhones and iPods without forcing users to run Apple’s own media software. Over the course of several months, Apple has claimed the very existence of iTunesDB violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s rules on circumventing copyright locks and, in November, successfully frightened OdioWorks into taking down the wiki entries.
EFF says it’s legal to hack code to increase competition — i.e. to allow an iPhone to work outside of iTunes. Is it also legal to hack bank accounts and transfer large sums of money so my net worth is more competitive with Bill Gates?
Not the same thing, of course, just pointing out that while I’d personally love Apple to open-source more of their code, the way they’ve done with OpenCL, CardDAV, CalDAV, etc. it’s still their code. As much as I don’t want to live in a corporate-controlled world where big business owns the rights to math, I also don’t want to live in a world where the over-entitled populace thinks they can take whatever they want. Because, if either side gets too extreme, what’s to stop them from targeting me next?
Other than the fact that I’ve never made or hacked any code worth stealing or knowing…
We all know Steve Jobs sculpted the iPhone from unicorn tears through a sheer act of singular will and hutzpah — along with buying FingerWorks and winning a glove-full of multi-touch patents of their own along the way (which may or may not still result in several rounds of pugilism with Palm’s Pre).
But who knew they might not have done enough? Elan Microelectronics of Taiwan, that’s who. Elan claims the iPhone, iPod touch, and Macbooks — basically everything featuring multi-touch functionality — is in violation of their patents, and they’ve filed suit in Apple’s home turf of San Francisco to prove it. (No word yet of litigation friendly Texas will sue over not being the venue of choice…)
A previous lawsuit from Elan against a company called Synaptics, who counter-sued resulted in a dismissal and cross-licensing agreement. This time? We’re calling Apple wins by (frenzied) tap-out due to guillotine choke near the end of the second round.
Anyone got the popcorn, hot dogs, and spicy drink?
[NY Times via iLounge]
For the love of Steve Jobs, leave Britney ehh… I mean the iPhone alone!
Back at the end of July, Casey reported on white iPhones having issues with the plastic housing cracking in certain areas. As most of you are probably aware of, there have been a few lawsuits filed against Apple regarding the iPhone 3G.
This go around a New York man, Avi Koschitzki, filed a 23 page lawsuit stating the iPhone is not “twice as fast” as the original and exhibits cracks in the housing of the phone.
Koschitzki is among several customers who’ve noticed hairline cracks form in the iPhone 3G’s casing at or around the camera module, and adds that some customers have noticed similar cracks immediately upon opening their new iPhones’ boxes for the first time.
Upon opening their new boxes for the first time? Gee… don’t you think if you bought a new iPhone 3G and you opened up that box only to see some cracks in the housing that you would say hey, wait a minute! Common sense if you ask me.
There is a ongoing thread in our forums regarding cracks in the iPhone 3G casing. Sorry but I still think people need to take better care of their iPhones. And I’m sure for some people it is a legitimate issue, but more than likely, most of the cases are cracking from abuse.
[Via Appleinsider]
