Apple Sued Over 'Animoji' Trademark

[bollman]

Didn't you guys read the article?
It wasn't Tim that called him and said: "Hi, we love your app, we would like to use parts of it (not telling that the trademark is all they want) in an upcoming product. How about we buy it including the trademark for $10000?".
I know I would've taken that any day and just gone "wohooo!"
No, instead, Apple tries using some third party, Apple owned company, to wiggle it out of his hands, either buy it cheap or actually scare him to release it.
When he didn't want to, Apple just decided that they have the better lawyers and so, will win this whatever happens, never mind the little guy. It's cheaper to continue to pay the attorneys which they already pay for, than changing all the documentation and ads and everything mentioning the trademark.
The little guy will never win though, for Apple have money to pay attorneys to the end of the world and they will never, ever stop appealing, whatever the outcome, in any court.

 

[Applebot1]

**** it, I'm in this game then.

I present to you. Gifs. The proper way to communicate. GifAnimoji TM.

That translates to "don't force your kiss onto a monkey."

It's a complicated language now, but once you get the rules down, you'll be typing out gifanimojis faster than you can say:

<animji or emoji>

I'm looking for partners. It will be $10 million for a 2% stake in my company.

It takes ’courage’ to do this and has the potential to disrupt the market.....’game changer’ and will be ‘magic’......count me in.

 

[daveak]

To have a trademark you need to be able to trade. Now he has taken legal action against Apple he is in breach of the developer licence agreement, which means the app cannot be in the store. App not for sale, he isn't trading, therefore not using the trademark. <insert maniacal laugh>

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Not the first time. https://www.cultofmac.com/143006/how-steve-jobs-steamrolled-cisco-on-the-name-iphone/

Well but Cisco is a 50 billion dollar revenue per year company.

This is not a great move by Apple.

 

[Michael Goff]

What happens if the guy has morels and takes a stand?

Apple fights in court until the guy goes bankrupt. And with 18k downloads, that probably wouldn’t take too long.

 

[MH01]

Does anyone else find it amazing that a company as big as Apple tries to buy the rights from this guy, are turned down, and Apple’s response is “**** it. Let’s go with the name anyway”? Also, 18k download in a few years and the guy isn’t for sale? Anyone else would be over the moon being offered a buyout with paltry numbers like that.

Absolutely not defending Apple. I just feel like that would be the absolute stupidest thing Apple could do in the situation.

Depends on how much he was offered , and what if he felt he was on a good trademark name? Animated emoji ..... or maybe he was just passionate about his project and money is not an issue?

I think we give apple too much credit for doing their diligence . They blatantly ripped off the Swiss train clocks. Maybe they are just too arrogant .

 

[Michael Goff]

Depends on how much he was offered , and what if he felt he was on a good trademark name? Animated emoji ..... or maybe he was just passionate about his project and money is not an issue?

I think we give apple too much credit for doing their diligence . They blatantly ripped off the Swiss train clocks. Maybe they are just too arrogant .

And this is a time when their arrogance will likely pay off if they want. The people who own Animoji aren’t billionaires. Apple could hold the company in court until it goes under.

There’s a time for standing up for yourself and a time for realizing there’s no upside and all downside.

 

[vooke]

Is iMoji taken?

 

[MH01]

And this is a time when their arrogance will likely pay off if they want. The people who own Animoji aren’t billionaires. Apple could hold the company in court until it goes under.

There’s a time for standing up for yourself and a time for realizing there’s no upside and all downside.

Brand reputation : that is apples problem,
Not the legal fight. If what you said were to play out and the guy was right and apple defeated him by destroying him financially..... the press would have a field day.

Apple also could have sent the Swiss railway bankrupt through an intensive battle, they killed it ASAP for brand reputation purposes.

Apple is going to settle very fast and the guy is going to make so much more than offered initially....if it's about the money.

 

[twintin]

[doublepost=1508478606][/doublepost]Animoji™ - Free Animated Texting [Patent Pending] by emonster Inc.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/animoji-free-animated-texting-patent-pending/id894504729?mt=8
Apple is getting really sloppy these days. Guy has an excellent case. Apple even sells his approved app, face palm moment here

The original post clearly states that Emonster Inc did not exist when the registration was done.

According to the article, he wasn't approached by 'Apple' but by a company called The Emoji Law Group LLC, which was a puppet company working for apple.

The article just states the guy just assumed that. Not that he or any one else know it at that point in time (he probably came to that conclusion after the Apple event).

 

[SeaFox]

Apple should just change it to Anemoji. Fixed. Save your $.

Nice try. But giving your product a name that is spelled differently, but phonetically the same as an existing trademark isn't kosher, either.

 

[MH01]

The original post clearly states that Emonster Inc did not exist when the registration was done.

The app did. They are arguing a mess up the registration

 

[recoil80]

He just want easy money. 18.000 download is nothing.

I think the guy is just trying to raise the price of its TM and he's right, I'd try to do that if I was him.
He was lucky to come up with the name and register it, in a few months he'll make a deal with Apple, get a good amount of money and his only problem will be spending it

 

[twintin]

The app did. They are arguing a mess up the registration

Well, the Swedish inventor Håkan Lans lost one of his cases in US due to a mess up of a name by his lawyers. You never know where this may end.

 

[Neodym]

Sarcasm aside.... it is the solution to language differences.

No, it is not. Way too much wiggle room for interpretation and contextual (i.e. cultural, personal, social/environmental) sub-channel information that simply doesn't come over across language boundaries.

If there is some kind of solution, it's (real-time) machine translation. Machine translation has become pretty usable lately and I'm convinced that, with some more years of development on the real-time part, we'll have some electronic babel fish thats sufficient for the majority of use cases.

 

[MH01]

Well, the Swedish inventor Håkan Lans lost one of his cases in US due to a mess up of a name by his lawyers. You never know where this may end.

Of course 100% agree with you, you can win legally even if you are morally wrong ....

Question for Apple is Brand reputation. They can probably win this, but geez the media can make them look like turds. I think apple values its magical clean image...

 

[Chicane-UK]

Does anyone else find it amazing that a company as big as Apple tries to buy the rights from this guy, are turned down, and Apple’s response is “**** it. Let’s go with the name anyway”? Also, 18k download in a few years and the guy isn’t for sale? Anyone else would be over the moon being offered a buyout with paltry numbers like that.

Absolutely not defending Apple. I just feel like that would be the absolute stupidest thing Apple could do in the situation.

I suspect when you're sitting on the pile of cash that Apple is, and when you control the distribution method that this guy uses to distribute his application, you know full well that you hold all the cards and can do whatever you want. I guess they figured he would complain, and they'll settle out of court.. probably for more than they originally offered but ultimately they will make the problem just go away, one way or another.

 

[inscrewtable]

What a mess and your think Qualcomm was the guilty one. If this gets out of hand, it could delay the X even longer if Apple has to pull the feature.

The name and the product are not the same thing. It's a trademark on the name, not a patent on the idea.

 

[Ntombi]

The article also makes it clear that the trademark is clouded and is undergoing a cancellation proceeding. Sounds like the tm may have been issued in error. Apple tried to pay the guy anyway, to avoid the expense of litigation.

If Apple is right and the trademark is no good (and thus canceled by uspto) this guy may well end up having to pay Apple’s legal fees incurred in defending the suit he just filed. Because he filed suit to enforce a trademark that he knew (or should have known) was invalid.

All agreed, but IMO, the article doesn’t paint the rosiest picture for Apple.

I’m not saying it won’t turn out okay for them, but it just didn’t read as particularly slanted to me. That was my main point.

 

[dilbert99]

Unlike most of these lawsuits, this one seems reasonable.

I am sure the trademark/IP owner in this case would be able to work out a reasonable settlement, likely already factored in by the legal team at Apple when they used it.

Apple would have done a search on the name before using it and did so fully aware of the owners rights to it.

And deceptive approaching people not under the Apple name.

 

[tn-xyz]

filthy apple.

 

[arkhanjel]

Don't you just love how the title of the app says "free" but it's a 99 cent app with an in app purchase to remove ads. It's pretty much a dead app. Last update to it was 3 years ago. Actually they might have done something today to make it look current? The app icon is different than the screen shots. The guy is looking for a big payday and might be flying a little close to the sun on this one. Not saying it's right but Apple could just do the whole court thing until he's broke. Then he'll wish he took the original offer because you know at that point any settlement will be less than that initial offer.

 

[dreadnort]

Why are some many people banging on about his app only having 18k downloads.. It doesn't matter it it's 1 or 1 billion he still owns the trademark until or if it gets cancelled.

 

[0098386]

Whenever Tim Cook tries to act like a progressive, remember he knew he was stealing this trademark from the little guy and could care less.

That logic is bananas and tells us about your situation.
Tim Cooks progressive ideals are to help people at risk, minorities, etc. Back when I was getting famous and I let it known to my publisher that I was worried about the business side of things - they said not to worry, that it’s a “good problem” to have. It’s elected.

At this point I really hope your post was in jest because I can’t imagine anyone being that way. Cheers.

 

[predation]

Not a chance. They’d rename it or at the very worst they’d pull it like messages in the cloud. There’s no way they’d halt the release of an entire device because an iMessage feature shares a name with another app. If anything they’ll throw $25 mil at the guy and make it up in seconds on 10/27 and his life is set.

I’d shoot for $50m.