Camera Labs

You guys might find it interesting. It's been reported that:

Link to complete article on web: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100129/tc_afp/usitcompanycomputermediainternetapplefujitsu

Another interesting read, (courtesy by Bob Anderson ), regarding Chinese company pre-emptively clones iPad: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hwz8_Lc8lr4suk1652XrlvyYK-wA

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"A man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth."

Yes this is true and like many other apple products but the bigger fish always win, well the apple lawyers do..

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Mark Osborne
My life through an iPhone

Not that it's a particularly good name, but yeah, Apple will stick with it...

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

This is the same thing that happened with the iPhone, it was Cisco trademark at the time. I'm beginning to think Apple deliberately disregards things like this and just out-muscles the other companies to get what they want.

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Graham
Flickr

The article says that Fujitsu made a trademark application for the "iPad" name with the US Patent and Trademark office in 2003, and it's still pending and not yet registered.

If this is the fact then i guess we won't be wrong if we assume that Apple went for the name on purpose. They know that they are the big fish in the pond and their team of corporate lawyers can handle any kind of heat, particularly generated by this blunder. I've nothing against Apple but this doesn't seems like an innocent mistake. Such huge companies like Apple, always do their homework. So how can that be.....
Let's wait and see what happens next.

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"A man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth."

I truly fail to see what the fuss is about. Fujitsu trademarked the name in 2003, but have they released anything under that name? None of the articles make that clear, and Google searches are now polluted by iPad news stories.

As for the Chinese clones, with a 1.5 hour battery life vs a 10 hour battery life can we honestly claim that they're clones? It's not like the tablet design is new as we've been making tablet PCs for years. The Chinese P88 looks like another run of the mill tablet PC, destined for the dust bins of history. Perhaps that's why they're suing Apple to raise their profile?

I have no desire for any iPad, but it's always interesting to see how Apple's competitors react to their product launches.

That's a good point but doesn't the system works the other way? You must have heard the story about "Pizza.com". Some guy registered the name couple of years ago. He never sold any pizza, that's for sure. If i am not mistaking, he sold the dot com name for millions. (I don't remember the exact amount). I am not arguing with you. But a lot of people are doing the same these days. The concerned government/department should take it under consideration to introduce some new laws to prevent these fortune seekers from limiting the options for genuine companies/corporations. I wonder if this is the way the system works. Anyone steps into the office and says: "Hey, i neither I own a business nor i have a product to sell/introduce, but I want to steal this name from the rest of the world." I hope this is not the case. From experience, we know that big corporations/companies have dedicated staff for different jobs. And almost all the time, they are careful about these issues. That's why we call them "Professionals". In this case, professionalism is yet to be found.

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"A man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth."

The us patenting system vs the eurpean patenting system has always been a big debate. Both systems have there flaws and perks.
But yes the us system gives more room for patent trolling.

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www.pimvandevelde.com