Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

European 'iWatch' Trademark Holder Plans New Android Smartwatch

Of course they want cash from Apple, and unfortunately they probably will.

I would use the payoff money (if Apple decides to pary for it) to run a monster campaign in Europe, about the business practice of this shameful company "Probendi"! And push Apple Watch name all over Europe!:cool:

Apple can do it, and has the money for it. I would go so far out of my way to expose this for what it is. What a chicken **** company.:apple:
 
Apple won't allow this to happen which will, unfortunately, end in a big pay out for the trademark holder.
 
No Pile of Cash For Probendi

I see a couple of posts above suggesting that the Probendi people are just trying to get Apple to give them a pile of cash. It's a little late for that, methinks. My bet is that Apple already offered them a big payday, but they held out for even more, thinking that Apple just had to have the name "iWatch." Then Apple announced the product and called it "Apple Watch." Now Probendi is left holding a useless trademark and wishes they had taken the money. Too bad! :p
 
Patriot24 said:
Nice.

All joking aside, I feel that the trademark issues is one of the reasons Apple is moving to the ":apple:Product" nomenclature. They own "Apple" globally, so they don't have to go through these kinds of battles with every single new product they release.
Click to expand...

Apple are just dropping the i because they don't want it anymore. It's dated. Eg iPhoto now just Photos.
 
This is just a bluff. Probendi may own _a_ trademark for iWatch, but they don't own the trademark that is necessary to produce smartwatches with the brand iWatch.

The trademark for iWatch in the class "watches" is registered to a multitude of entities. When the first rumors about a Apple smartwatch started, everybody rushed to their countries trademark office to register the trademark 'iWatch'.

But Apple thwarted all those great money-making plans by calling it Apple Watch.

All those entities that registered the iWatch trademark in the watch category still want to see money for it. So if Probendi wants to sell a smartwatch with the name iWatch they have to get that trademark for each country they want to sell the watch in.

And that's not going to happen.
 
DarelRex said:
I see a couple of posts above suggesting that the Probendi people are just trying to get Apple to give them a pile of cash. It's a little late for that, methinks. My bet is that Apple already offered them a big payday, but they held out for even more, thinking that Apple just had to have the name "iWatch." Then Apple announced the product and called it "Apple Watch." Now Probendi is left holding a useless trademark and wishes they had taken the money. Too bad! :p
Click to expand...

I think this is a possibility. Maybe he thought he could pull a fast one. Nope. I'm gonna guess he'll finally take a much lower pittance of a few thousand bucks offered a few years from now (covered in spit and poop) and apple will own the TM eventually. The big boys and their law firms hold all the cards these days.
 
mw360 said:
Apple are just dropping the i because they don't want it anymore. It's dated. Eg iPhoto now just Photos.
Click to expand...

I like the push towards Apple?, and I do like the i stuff names too. I don't know if it's old, maybe it is, but iPhone, iPad, iPod & iMac are to "iConic" to change.

It's just what they are, everyone knows what you're talking about when you hear iPhone, iPad etc.:apple::cool:
 
DarelRex said:
I see a couple of posts above suggesting that the Probendi people are just trying to get Apple to give them a pile of cash. It's a little late for that, methinks. My bet is that Apple already offered them a big payday, but they held out for even more, thinking that Apple just had to have the name "iWatch." Then Apple announced the product and called it "Apple Watch." Now Probendi is left holding a useless trademark and wishes they had taken the money. Too bad! :p
Click to expand...

I think Apple is probably going along the lines of brand confusion and similarity of product names. Everybody expected Apple's wearable device to be called the 'iWatch' and 'Apple Watch' was somewhat of a surprise. This doesn't stop some people referring to it as the 'iWatch' in slang. If a company comes out with a product called the 'iWatch', this may well lead to confusion about the product's relationship with Apple. If they snatch up the rights for the name, they avoid any of this.

I'm purely speculating here. I'm no expert.
 
JarScott said:
I think Apple is probably going along the lines of brand confusion and similarity of product names. Everybody expected Apple's wearable device to be called the 'iWatch' and 'Apple Watch' was somewhat of a surprise. This doesn't stop some people referring to it as the 'iWatch' in slang. If a company comes out with a product called the 'iWatch', this may well lead to confusion about the product's relationship with Apple. If they snatch up the rights for the name, they avoid any of this.

I'm purely speculating here. I'm no expert.
Click to expand...

And maybe Apple didn't register iWatch because they didn't want to tip their hand? Just a thought.
 
Small White Car said:
And sold about 1 million units in its first year.

On the other hand, the iPod sold 100 million units in the first 5 years.

I think it's pretty obvious which one inspired others to start using 'i' in their products.
Click to expand...

What an outstanding display of obstinance when confronted with your error and I particularly enjoyed your highly misleading comparison regarding units sold.
 
If you owned the 'iWatch' trademark would you be ethical and leave Apple alone or try to get every penny you can possibly get?

Apple should trademark everything that starts with 'i' iBelt, iGlasses, iCondoms, iTampons, because why not? You never know where technology is gonna take us 10s of years from now.
 
It seems like they frequent MacRumors

...where they could have picked up the name!

The UK IPO entry for the iWatch trademark has a filing date of August 3rd, 2008 --ten days after the following was posted to a MacRumors forums thread, "The new Apple products prediction thread!!!", on July 24th, 2008:

jz1492 said:
iWatch: A wristwatch with power saving OLED color screen and short range bluetooth communications to your iPhone / iPod. No flash memory, no speakers or headphones, just a convenient remote control and display for your iDevices. Range is no more than 10 feet to conserve power.

With a multi-touch screen.
Click to expand...

:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back