USPTO Preliminarily Denies Apple's 'Touch ID' Trademark Application

[RobinHood5]

And in a couple weeks the MacRumors headline will read "Apple buys biometrics company Kronos"

 

[locust76]

Touch mistaken ID is more like it. I stopped using it because it's not ready for prime time as far as I can tell.

Works just fine for me, I've had my 5s since launch.

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And in a couple weeks the MacRumors headline will read "Apple buys biometrics company Kronos"

I'm sure licensing the trademark will be much cheaper. Besides, Apple already owns a biometrics firm (AuthenTec) and Kronos hasn't sued Apple for use of Touch ID yet, so they will probably just wait it out.

 

[gnasher729]

There was also an issue with the iOS trademark in a separate case.
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco_and_apple_agreement_on_ios_trademark/

There was no issue. Cisco holds the trademark for their IOS (capital I) operating system for routers etc. Apple paid Cisco for a license that allows them to use iOS (lowercase i) for their operating system.

 

[kdarling]

Reports on Office Actions from the USPTO always come off as huge things on tech sites. It's not that the USPTO is declaring it dead. For example, a trademark office action has a 6 month due date for a response. Apple has many courses of action to take because the trademark registration application isn't abandoned yet.

Yep, although this one's a bit tougher than usual, as the refusal of their electronic device trademark application is three-pronged:

1. Likelihood of confusion with the other company's trademark.

2. It was deemed "merely descriptive", which Apple often gets as a refusal point for their applications which string together common words. E.g. it was a refusal ground at first for "App Store".

Apple always reapplies claiming "acquired distinctiveness". In other words, that people associate it with them. (It looks like they planned for this by waiting until Jan 2014 to file for the trademark. The trouble is, Apple usually doesn't wait long enough for this to be really true.)

3. Indefinite wording for the type of goods it applies to.

For example, one category Apple applied for was “car audio apparatus; audio components and accessories; telecommunications apparatus and instruments” .

The USPTO response was that the "Applicant must specify the type/use of the car audio device, e.g., stereo receivers, the audio components and accessories, and the type/use of the telecomunications apparatus and instruments."

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Apple probably can solve their trademark issues (iPad, App Store, MultiTouch, and now Touch ID) by doing a little research first.

Most likely they did, and still went with it because they like the name.

 

[unplugme71]

Knowing apple they will either:

1. Acquire the license like they have in the past

2. Rename it something like 'Finger ID' and overdramatize it.

Ex: Finger ID is beautifully, unapologetically renamed for a better user experience. With Finger ID, we had to work with usability, then work backwards to design. Which let us to create the beautiful iPhone 6 to go with it.

or iFinger.. lol