Judge sides with Apple in iBooks lawsuit

Picking a good name for a company, product or service is an important first step for any owner. However, when two companies pick the same name, or when one organization copies another, the two can often find themselves in court. This is especially true in the world of big business. 

Recently, Apple came out ahead in a dispute resolution against Black Tower Press, a small New York-based publisher. According to an article in GigaOM, the publisher sued the Cupertino, California-based technology giant for calling its digital bookstore "iBooks." Apple uses this platform to sell ebooks that customers can read on their iPads or iPhones.

Black Tower Press, which publishes science fiction and fantasy books, felt that this name was too close to "ibooks," a mark that the publisher acquired when it purchased another publishing company several years ago.

The problem for Black Tower Press was that it did not trademark "ibooks," reported GigaOM. Apple, on the other hand, has held the trademark for "iBook" since 1999, when the word was used to describe its line of laptop computers.

It didn't take long for U.S. District Judge Denise Cote to side with Apple in this case. Cote's main argument was that no reasonable consumer would confuse the two products.

"They have offered no evidence that consumers who use Apple's iBooks software to download ebooks have come to believe that Apple has also entered the publishing business and is the publisher of all of the downloaded books, despite the fact that each book bears the imprint of its actual publisher," Cote wrote.

Companies that feel their trademarks are being violated or companies that want to defend their intellectual property could benefit from consulting with a Phoenix small business attorney.

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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