Apple Files Lawsuit Against Teenager Who Sold White iPhone 4 Conversion Kits, Settlement Reached?

[LazyMacGuy]

Your rite

But personally.. I wouldn't give a Fu*%, as long as my kids got food on their plates.. Fu$& morals

I completely agree, but I imagine you would be willing to accept the consequences.

If people kept getting let off then there would be no point in making things illegal.

 

[blahblah100]

Apple COULD have pressed criminal charges against him. They didn't.

Wrong. Apple could have REQUESTED that charges be filed against him.

 

[DrDomVonDoom]

How many of you supported Metallica when they were fighting Napster. I bet a good number of you didn't.

Yeah, I don't support Metallica in any sense of the word, but the difference there was no one was profiting in lue of Metallica, thats like me taking a unreleased album, putting up a website saying I'm Metallica and selling that album to people. Its a little different.

 

[LandOfTech]

F You apple! The kids just trying to make a buck because you couldn't get ur ***** straight when making a white iphone now you sue him and take all his money.

 

[DrDomVonDoom]

Your rite

But personally.. I wouldn't give a Fu*%, as long as my kids got food on their plates.. Fu$& morals

Thats exactly the reason that in the poorest parts of America, theres not a dad to be seen. **** Morals? You might as well not feed your kid if your don't give a **** about morals, then your kids gonna learn that morals don't matter either and do the same ****. This mindset that somehow you can cheat the system and get ahead is inheritly flawed. Sure you might do a illegal venture to keep food on your table, you make make some cash, but you might also get caught, thrown in jail, not see your son for years and leave him defenseless and all alone.

 

[Docrjm]

The person named in the suit, did NOT produce the conversion kit. He sold parts that were diverted from a supply chain illegally. The parts were sold illegally and bore Apple trademarks. Had he contacted foxconn and arranged to purchase white gorilla glass with his own logo etc this would be moot. He did not.
This is Apple protecting it's brand and trademark. A company that fails to do so will find same then genericized. Anyone could then slap the logo on any crap and call it Apple.

 

[Jaredly]

If you'd apply some logic, you would figure out and it is known that there must have been a production problem.
Apple was not going to ship something subpar, just to appease the public or critics. It was discussed in other threads at length.

Lawsuits are necessary, when somebody impacts ones business.

1) Stolen goods
2) Knowingly using stolen goods

etc.etc..

The "only a teenager" excuse is getting old. Today's teenagers who have not been taught what is right or wrong, need to be taught.

The guy was sophisticated enough to run a website, collect money and had no morals and ethics.

If his parents didn't teach him, somebody else had to.

If you had a company selling a product that is a success and somebody would steal parts from you and make money from it and potentially harm the products reputation, you would do nothing?

To all the bash Apple on this posters, are you for real?

Apple did nothing wrong here. They shut down an illegal business, using their parts and potentially damaging their reputation!

Very typical comments for USA where the victim is always the guilty party.

You said that he knowingly resold stolen property. Where are you getting this from? What if the kid though he was running a legit buisness. He might have just google the number to foxcom, got in touch with an employee who told the kid he could sell him parts for the iphone. As far as the kid is concerned when he first started this he was doing everything in a legitamite way (except probably paying taxes). Once he was told what he was doing was illegal he inidiatly shut down his site.

 

[BC2009]

Bravo, Apple! Way to go out of your way to crush the competition!


Sadly, if Microsoft would have done this (think Mike Rowe Soft incident) people would be rioting but Apple crushing a teenage is ok...

I'm sorry, but this is really dumb. And I mean really, really dumb.

He's only a teenager, Apple are just throwing their weight around.

Douche Move of the Century.

Women. Children. None were spared the master's wrath.

Apple is getting to big for it's britches. The fad will be passing within another 2 yrs, the bubble will burst. And apple will be remembered for what it is ... a really good marketing company.

hopefully the whole hacker crowd goes after apple for this petty crap and shuts them down like they did to sony

You guys are missing the point here ENTIRELY. According to trademark law you MUST defend your trademarks or else you open the door for others to infringe on them. So Apple has to file a suit or else its competitors can cite this case as a justification for their own infringement.

However, notice that Apple voluntarily withdrew.

Apple did, however, also file a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit at the same time, suggesting that a settlement has may have been reached,

I'm sure their lawyers had a stern talk with the kid and his parents about what he did. I'm sure there was some sort of confidential settlement that involved the kid not ever doing this again. But even though the lawsuit says "must forfeit all profits" etc... etc.... It did not really happen that way. Apple went easy on this kid, but had to file the lawsuit to avoid setting a precedent that could allow the big competitors to hurt them.

Heck, Woz was even quoted on the Engadget show as having purchased parts from this kid and asked publicly for Apple's legal department to go easy on him.

 

[dgree03]

The kid was able to put out a white iphone before apple did. Using Apple parts, that apple claims didnt work correctly last june.

I wonder if the people who bought these "defective units" actually think they are defective? Was apples excuse really true?

Also, what difference does it make releasing a defective white iphone... the iphone 4 in general is considered "defective" due to the faulty antenna and proximity senor.

Who has filed a lawsuit against apple?

 

[LandOfTech]

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

I completely agree with you!

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Apple should hire him. He could be a one man assembly plant.

 

[bergert]

Without more info we cant be sure on how the goods got to the kid. But he most likely was buying the parts of his supplier in china, so he is not a thief like every one keeps saying. The thief is the employee at Foxconn. The only thing the kid is guilty of is using apple's trade mark illegally.

Knowingly buying stolen goods is still stealing.
http://www.shouselaw.com/stolen-property.html

And there was a high probability the parts were stolen, because they carried the logo but were not sold officially by Apple; nor available on the free market (i.e. sold to everybody). In fact Apple did not sell white handsets at the time, but they were obviously manufactured under order = exclusively for Apple.

 

[Lennholm]

Yeah, I don't support Metallica in any sense of the word, but the difference there was no one was profiting in lue of Metallica, thats like me taking a unreleased album, putting up a website saying I'm Metallica and selling that album to people. Its a little different.

Shawn Fanning didn't profit from Napster!?

Metallica lost sales from people who would've bought the music if no one illegally made it available for free. The copyright owners have the right to set the terms of how others get access to their IP, whether they want money for it or give it away is totally up to them, if it doesn't suit you, pass on the offer.

It's a slight difference but it's just as bad, if not worse.

Clarification: the Metallica case IS worse, because they actually lost sales, Apple hasn't lost any sales since they sold the black iPhone in the first place, and these parts were giong to be scrapped anyway. I think losing sales is far worse than only having some one else also profiting.

 

[abronbibly]

Not that hard to do now and days

I know.. I'm a developer lol.

The point is you don't see any kids sitting in the public library building internet businesses. He clearly came from enough of a lifestyle where he owned a computer, had a credit card or bank account to purchase a domain and a server to host a website, and had the knowledge to create a business.

I live in Manhattan, I don't see any homeless people doing this.

So again, I highly doubt this kid went to a public library to do this.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Fire Woz!

 

[Docrjm]

He was selling parts with the Apple logo on them. Apple was protecting it's trademark. If you do not legally protect your trademark you can lose your trademark.
Additionally some of the logic in your post is very flawed. Being poor is not a legal defense, nor is the size of the companies net worth of any relevance in this instance.

To ease your nausea, sell your MacBook Pro.

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

 

[Jaredly]

These were parts that Apple owned. This is no different than if someone stole your car from your garage, then sold it to someone else.

It is extremely different. He did not go to the factory and steel the parts and then sell them. He simply bought parts and was reselling them. I think this is a better analigy. You by a car from somebody, then you go to resell the car, a couple months later you find out the car you bought and then sold was stolen.

 

[fribhey]

i can't believe how much stupid there is here.

 

[Jaredly]

How was he infringing on apples trademark? On his website he said he was selling apple parts, he never said he made them. Im guessing that by everybody believes that it is also trademark infringment to resell my macbook because it has an apple logo on it?

 

[cmfilms]

Has anyone actually read the article?!?

He was selling stolen iPhone parts from Foxconn! This wasn't just a white skin that he designed.

 

[Muscle Master]

How was he infringing on apples trademark? On his website he said he was selling apple parts, he never said he made them. Im guessing that by everybody believes that it is also trademark infringment to resell my macbook because it has an apple logo on it?

Very good point indeed

 

[unlinked]

You mean "He is just a criminal."

Is that what happened though? People are saying these were defective parts that were thrown away that the kid bought and then sold. If he was really trafficking in stolen goods then the criminal courts shouldn't have any problem going after him. I'm thinking it wasn't quite that simple, thus the scorched earth civil complaint that Apple knew the kid would not or could not fight.

Criminal charges have a much higher standard of proof. This way people get to call him a criminal without all that nasty effort.

 

[srazz]

For all those complaining like this remember:

1) He reportedly illegally got stolen parts from Foxconn
2) His parts had the Apple logo and this is a trademark violation

He wants to engineer legitimate replacement parts without trademark logos, he might have a respectable business.

Perfectly said!!! This kid is a thief.

 

[Docrjm]

He was selling Apple branded parts that he did not have the legal right to sell. He has no distribution agreement with Apple.
This is not the same as you selling your MacBook
He chose to sell parts that were diverted from Apples supply chain.

How was he infringing on apples trademark? On his website he said he was selling apple parts, he never said he made them. Im guessing that by everybody believes that it is also trademark infringment to resell my macbook because it has an apple logo on it?

 

[Tiger8]

He lives in New York City, so yes, US law applies to him.

If the guy was doing a business spraying iPhones in white (or gold), then no crime here. But he is obviously replacing the black parts with stolen white parts, so obviously the law was broken here.