[quote][img]http://images.smh.com.au/2010/07/21/1707002/ipood200-200x0.jpg[/img]
Frustrated Apple customers dealing with new faulty iPhones may think they belong in the loo but a Perth company's foray into toilet humour got them into trouble with the technology giant.
Outdoor adventure equipment manufacturer Sea to Summit spent two years developing a small aluminium spade designed for campers to dig holes and deposit human waste following guidelines from ethical outdoor travel organisation Leave No Trace.
General manager Rob McSporran said the company dubbed the trowel "iPood!" and registered it as a trademark in Australia in October 2006.
"We identified that there was a hole in the market for a sturdy poo trowel. Many cheap ones on the market are plastic and break easily and people end up leaving bits of plastic all over the place," Mr McSporran said.
"The purpose of the product is to help people be responsible, to educate people, but talking about burying your poo tends to turn people off so we had a bit of fun [with the name]."
It had been on the market for seven months before Apple's lawyers swooped, asking Sea to Summit to cancel its Australian trademark registration, withdraw applications in the US and China, and change the product name once the stock ran out.
"Sea to Summit iPood is clearly similar to Apple's iPod, there being merely a single letter difference," the letter said.
"For obvious reasons, Apple's reputation for clean design and high-tech electronics will suffer should it be associated with latrines and the like through Sea to Summit's use of iPood."
Mr McSporran said the company, which has 40 employees and was established 20 years ago, decided to abide by the request because they didn't have the resources to fight it.
"We have changed the name to Pocket Trowel, which is a bit boring," he said.
But he said the cost of changing the product name on packaging and marketing was negligible.[/quote]
[url=http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/ipood-raises-apples-ire-20100721-10l0t.html]Source[/url]
I guess Apple got really iPooed off :downsrim:
Does it drop the poo when I touch it in certain places?
if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?
Does it still work if you use your right hand?
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
lowercase i as a prefix, not that unreasonable.
If you use your left hand, the iPood drops everything.
I want one.
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
The name bears more resemblance to an apple product (iPod) than iPillow.
iDontgiveashit.
[QUOTE=redback3;23540008]Idontgiveashit.[/QUOTE]
you did it wrong its supposed to be the i is lower case..
How iNfuriating.
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
I dunno, I think it's iConic enough for Apple to make the case
[QUOTE=Triumph Forks;23540542]I dunno, I think it's iConic enough for Apple to make the case[/QUOTE]
but but
the "iHurr" would only work if the word is actually written with a capital letter, so like name of a brand.
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
A small army of lawyers?
They should have called it iPoop, then it's a two letter difference.
I don't see the BBC being sued
iHome isn't being sued.
iOldspice.
Hello ladies, look at your phone, now back to mine, now back to yours, Now Back To Mine. Sadly, yours isn't mine, but if you stopped buying normal long battery phones and switched to low battery life touch phones, yours could at least break like mine.
Look down, look up.
Where are you?
You're in an Apple Store with the phone your phone could be. What's in your hand? I have it, an iPhone 4 held wrong, look again, the battery is now diamonds! Anything's possible when you spend £499 on a phone and not £40.
I'm on a horse.
iCaramba
(get it?)
The funny thing is, if they hadn't of said anything, the iPood would be barely known by anyone and would of made barely any difference to their rep. Now, regardless of whether it gets changed or not a lot of people have heard. :v:
iShat.
Now all we need is an iPissed.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;23533997]lowercase i as a prefix, not that unreasonable.[/QUOTE]
No it's as stupid as Edge trying to sue Mirrors Edge.
"iWould have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those iLawyers"
iMust say, apple is so over protective of their iNtellectual property.
iThink Apple is just complete iShite
[QUOTE=radioactive;23541087]iOldspice.
Hello ladies, look at your phone, now back to mine, now back to yours, Now Back To Mine. Sadly, yours isn't mine, but if you stopped buying normal long battery phones and switched to low battery life touch phones, yours could at least break like mine.
Look down, look up.
Where are you?
You're in an Apple Store with the phone your phone could be. What's in your hand? I have it, an iPhone 4 held wrong, look again, the battery is now diamonds! Anything's possible when you spend £499 on a phone and not £40.
I'm on a horse.[/QUOTE]
The iPhone is now a celestial sandwich here in the snack zone.
iCe cream
Clearly Apple was in the concept stages of the iPood and these Australian douchebags beat them to the draw.
[editline]02:15PM[/editline]
:rolleyes:
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
Apple: "iOwnTheTrademark"
[QUOTE=BCell;23533983]if iName my pillow as iPillow and sell them, will they sue?
Seriously, What gave Apple the right to own the letter i?[/QUOTE]
iPillow - iPod 4 letter difference.
iPood - iPod 1 letter difference (and the letter is only doubled).
You would think that kids learn something in elementary school.
[editline]11:31PM[/editline]
I think that apple made MUCH more publicity and thus selling value to the product by the case, than the retarded iSomething name could ever do on it's own.
I wouldn't be surprised if the manufacturers of the ShitScoop (that would be a cool name) actually gain for the whole case.
[editline]11:33PM[/editline]
I am pretty sure that if Nintendo named their interface on next Wii with codename Wiindows, Microsoft would go batshit insane.
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