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'iTV Entertainment' Trademark Holder Seeking to Rouse Apple's Attention with Warnings over Unreleased TV Set

Konrad9 said:
Doesn't want to buy? Remember when they announced the Apple TV as the iTV?
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That was the code name. Though judging by how many times Steve accidentally said iTV instead of Apple TV during the announcement, it was likely a last minute name change that they probably didn't want to do.

I personally don't like the name Apple TV. Apple hasn't put "Apple" in any product name in decades, other than accessories that cross product lines. Some may have considered Apple TV an accessory in the past but for me these days it's almost as important as my iOS devices.

I hope they change the name but it seems obvious they aren't getting iTV.
 
tired of these "iTV" name stories. it's a dead issue.
 
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iTVe is just about fantasy sports

From their About Page:

"iTVe is a pioneer in the fantasy sports industry. It possesses an impressive portfolio of industry‐leading intellectual property (IP) rights consisting of nine issued patents and nine pending patents related to interactive television that includes fantasy sports and gaming."

And, from their Partner with Us page:

" iTVe’s platform is the “Killer App” that bridges the gap between casual sports viewers and active fantasy sports players."

So, 1) they refer to themselves as "iTVe" 2) they make it pretty clear they're about fantasy sports...about as far from a consumer electronics device manufacturer as one could imagine. A look at their patent squatting / intellectual property page is interesting, but only seems to reinforce the fact that they're just looking to grab attention at this point in Apple's spotlight without any real merit to their claims.

That said, it's doubtful that Apple would try to latch onto "iTV" given the existence of the ITV UK TV network (be like asking CNN here to change its entire brand name -- not going to happen). I'd think Apple would've had it by now if there was ever a possibility. I actually like Apple TV as a name.
 
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ArcaneDevice said:
Yeah because it's not as if the world famous Apple Corps (who also made electronics) was started ten years before Apple Inc or that Jobs agreed to stay away from the music industry and then reneged on that is it?

Funny, if it was Apple Inc who wanted to get pissy with someone called Apple Corp I bet you would be all in favor. :rolleyes:
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The funny part is that Apple Corps's main webpage these days is all about iTunes, iPad, iBooks, iPhone ringtones...

http://www.applecorpsltd.com/
 
Wake up!

olegandbuster25 said:
"cause confusion?"

LMFAO
Has anyOne even HEARD of this iTV crap haha?

These guys are so funny
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Yes people have heard of it, it's a big TV network here in the UK and if you bothered to take your head out of your ass you might realise that.

Whether they call it iTV or not is irrelevant, it's the presumption that Apple will just use the name regardless of any trademark that is the issue. For arguments sake, imagine that Apple were rumoured to release a product called CNN or HBO, what would the reaction be?

The whole thing is probably just hot air, but it would be convenient for Apple if the iTV name were available.
 
shaunp said:
Yes people have heard of it, it's a big TV network here in the UK and if you bothered to take your head out of your ass you might realise that.

Whether they call it iTV or not is irrelevant, it's the presumption that Apple will just use the name regardless of any trademark that is the issue. For arguments sake, imagine that Apple were rumoured to release a product called CNN or HBO, what would the reaction be?

The whole thing is probably just hot air, but it would be convenient for Apple if the iTV name were available.
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its also pretty careless for a company to publicly announce their assumption that another company would "infringe" on their IP, especially without valid reasoning.
 
shaunp said:
Yes people have heard of it, it's a big TV network here in the UK and if you bothered to take your head out of your ass you might realise that.

Whether they call it iTV or not is irrelevant, it's the presumption that Apple will just use the name regardless of any trademark that is the issue. For arguments sake, imagine that Apple were rumoured to release a product called CNN or HBO, what would the reaction be?

The whole thing is probably just hot air, but it would be convenient for Apple if the iTV name were available.
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The real "issue" is "presumption"

;)
 
Bheleu said:
Would love it if Apple gave it an esoteric name. Oak, Maple, etc. forget calling it TV, Television, etc.

Its just fun saying you are going to the Apple Store and buy an Oak for the living room. Going over to a friends house to watch the Super Bowl on an Oak at better than HD quality.

Could even call it the iWall or iWallE, "I Wall Entertainment" if it must use an iOS name.
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no.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B5141a Safari/7534.48.3)

I agree with others, the "i" naming scheme is old, tired and overused.

TV in any form is so ubiquitous - we say we are going to watch a little TV tonight and I don't see that changing, even if it's on an Apple branded TV. You don't say I'm going to turn on the Sony xbr 2145ST-46.

Even if apple has figured out how to do tv better, I don't see them changing what people call it. It's not like they've created a new category, like they did with the iPod, which owned not only market share but the overall naming of what just about any mp3 player was thought of as.
 
TVFusion

TVFusion is a trademark to a company in Cupertino.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.3.252

FusionTV is as well.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.3.320

Multi-Pass is owned by Apple
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.3.409

iFrame
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.6.281

Triple Play is as well
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.3.419

Tubes
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.4.188

MovieTalk
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.4.753

All from:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfiel...h&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query

Voicepass is the newest...
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:6g77vf.6.9
 
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Alright fine... *sigh*. Since everyone's throwing wacky names on the wall, I guess I'll try my hand...

Why not just "Apple Television"...?

But I guess that could get confusing though...
Apple TV = set-top box
Apple Television = an actual TV.

So, maybe rename Apple TV (3 or 4) to "Apple Box"...?:confused:


I personally still don't get why Apple needs to make a TV and am not convinced it will come to market. Just put Siri in an Apple TV 3 (or 4) and HDMI CEC so it can power on/off your telly. But that's another story, and I guess we shall see.
 
"The Apple iTV entertainment center device would cause a great amount of confusion with iTV Entertainment customers"
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LOL. Now that's what I call framing the question! Apple wouldn't be calling this the "iTV entertainment center." They wouldn't be using the word "entertainment" at all. It would be "[apple symbol] iTV"

Nice try. I'd buy that some confusion could arise between the use of iTV and iTV Entertainment if they engaged in the same industry. They're related, for sure– but not the same. And it's very clear that Apple has a logical succession of "i" names that, while not guaranteeing they have perpetual license to slap an "i" before anything, it does reduce consumer confusion if people associate the i-product naming scheme with Apple.
 
 
A diatribe on false assumptions

Have to say, I'm getting a bit irritated with the number of times ITV (the broadcast company) are getting their name dragged through the mud by people who assume that they are making a fuss about this issue.

The last story that was posted on this topic, several weeks ago, was subsequently refuted by ITV. The only time - to the public's knowledge - that ITV raised the potential trademark infringement with Apple was after they announced a product called iTV, before subsequently renaming it Apple TV. Whether that was a formal product announcement, teaser or just a test unit, it clearly became part of the public consciousness and was addressed, rightly, by ITV.

This time it's a small US firm, iTV Entertainment LLC, who have raised the objection. Nothing to do with ITV PLC. The US firm may be seeking some sort of financial compensation for their registered mark, they may on the other hand not, who knows. The key is that ITV PLC are not raising this as an issue.

Now, how do I get off this high horse....?!

Ps - if you want to get really confused, ITV have a page called 'ITV Player for Apple TV'. Feast on that.
 
Kid A said:
I personally still don't get why Apple needs to make a TV and am not convinced it will come to market. Just put Siri in an Apple TV 3 (or 4) and HDMI CEC so it can power on/off your telly. But that's another story, and I guess we shall see.
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Agreed. I think that they will, at bare minimum, keep a set-top solution to go along their all-in-one solution.

----------
lewi said:
Ps - if you want to get really confused, ITV have a page called 'ITV Player for Apple TV'. Feast on that.
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Mmmmm. That DOES go well with the chicken. Well done. ;-)
 
Whatever

Just get it out there fully thought out to do some great stuff right from the get go. Only lawyers care about making it an issue-they get paid by the hours and the more the merrier for them-in EVERYTHING they do! That's their MO.
 
It sounds to me as though this guy is hoping that Apple wants to use the iTV name so he can demand a huge payout.

iTV Entertainment have made their position very clear. If Apple wants to use the iTV name, they'd have had discussions about it by now.

My bet is the name will stay Apple TV and this guy won't win the lottery.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple just integrates the AppleTV internal parts into their TB display, add 2 HDMI ports, bigger screen size options, "FaceTime HD" webcam, so it can FaceTime, and access iTMS/iCloud content as a standalone iOS device.

Definitely shouldn't call it iTV though.
 
bretm said:
It's because it's called Calendar in iOS. iOS comes first from Mountain Lion on out, and they said they're getting everything in sync wherever possible. For example iPhoto won't become photos. iPhoto does more than just catalog photos. The two aren't the same like iCal and Calendar. Contacts and Address book however will become Contacts if I remember right.
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I know, probably wasn't the best example, as there really isn't any that Apple is gradually moving away from using the 'i'.

As far as naming conventions go, they dropped the "Power" from their Mac line (PowerMac, PowerBook...). Now, they've dropped "Mac" from the OS X name. Maybe 'i' is the next thing they'll gradually drop from the name of any new forms of product.
 
I'm kind of struggling to care, as the ITV channel is really dreadful; nothing good on it at all.

You'd think they'd be really up for it, think of the slogan "ITV on your iTV!"

What if Apple wants to distance itself from "TV" anyway? After all, when you can watch any show you want, whenever you want, then the old notion of watching TV channels is kind of becoming outdated. So why not go with something else entirely, like the iMultimediaViewingSurface… okay, maybe something a bit catchier than mine at least :p
 
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