

Steve Jobs: Apple owns the trademark on 'Pad' - ukdm
http://www.9to5mac.com/steve-jobs-pad-trademark-app-3450386433

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crad
What's interesting, unless I'm missing something, Siemens owns the trademark
on iPad:

Word Mark IPAD Goods and Services IC 007. US 013 019 021 023 031 034 035. G &
S: ENGINES, NOT FOR LAND VEHICLES; ELECTRIC MOTORS FOR MACHINES AND ELECTRIC
STARTER MOTORS, NAMELY, DRIVING GEARS IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S:
PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRICAL DRIVES FOR CONTROLLING MACHINES USED IN THE FIELD OF
MEDICAL, AUTOMOTIVE AND AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY, BUILDING SERVICES, ENGINEERING
AND INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION; LOW VOLTAGE AND MEDIUM VOLTAGE VARIABLE FREQUENCY
DRIVES FOR CONTROL OF MOTORS

Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Trademark Search Facility Classification Code LETTER-3-OR-MORE iPAD
Combination of three or more letters as part of the mark SHAPES-MISC
Miscellaneous shaped designs Serial Number 79023888 Filing Date March 20, 2006
Current Filing Basis 66A Original Filing Basis 66A Published for Opposition
December 11, 2007 Registration Number 3389082 International Registration
Number 0885058 Registration Date February 26, 2008 Owner (REGISTRANT) Siemens
Aktiengesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft FED REP GERMANY Wittelsbacherplatz 2
80333 München FED REP GERMANY Attorney of Record LAWRENCE E ABELMAN Priority
Date February 28, 2006 Description of Mark Color is not claimed as a feature
of the mark. Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator
LIVE

and Pad:

Word Mark PAD Goods and Services IC 007. US 013 019 021 023 031 034 035. G &
S: ENGINES, NOT FOR LAND VEHICLES; ELECTRIC MOTORS FOR MACHINES AND ELECTRIC
STARTER MOTORS, NAMELY, DRIVING GEARS IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S:
PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRICAL DRIVES FOR CONTROLLING MACHINES USED IN THE FIELD OF
MEDICAL, AUTOMOTIVE AND AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY, BUILDING SERVICES, ENGINEERING
AND INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION; LOW VOLTAGE AND MEDIUM VOLTAGE VARIABLE FREQUENCY
DRIVES FOR CONTROL OF MOTORS

Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Trademark Search Facility Classification Code LETTER-3-OR-MORE PAD Combination
of three or more letters as part of the mark Serial Number 79023831 Filing
Date March 20, 2006 Current Filing Basis 66A Original Filing Basis 66A
Published for Opposition December 11, 2007 Registration Number 3389081
International Registration Number 0884875 Registration Date February 26, 2008
Owner (REGISTRANT) Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft FED REP
GERMANY Wittelsbacherplatz 2 80333 München FED REP GERMANY Attorney of Record
LAWRENCE E ABELMAN Priority Date February 28, 2006 Description of Mark Color
is not claimed as a feature of the mark. Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register
PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

[Edit: Didn't realize uspto links timeout]

~~~
hussong
Interesting find! Note that Siemens owns the word marks only for specific
goods and services:

    
    
      IC 007. US 013 019 021 023 031 034 035. G & S: 
      ENGINES, NOT FOR LAND VEHICLES; 
      ELECTRIC MOTORS FOR MACHINES AND ELECTRIC STARTER MOTORS, 
      NAMELY, DRIVING GEARS
    
      IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: 
      PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRICAL DRIVES FOR CONTROLLING MACHINES USED 
      IN THE FIELD OF MEDICAL, AUTOMOTIVE AND AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY, 
      BUILDING SERVICES, ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION; 
      LOW VOLTAGE AND MEDIUM VOLTAGE VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVES FOR 
      CONTROL OF MOTORS

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AndrewDucker
Well, according to a whole bunch of comments recently, this is fine. Steve
owns the App Store, he sets the rules.

If you want to be allowed in then you have to follow the rules.

And keep up to date with them when they change.

And be happy to change your apps name, language and design if Steve doesn't
like them.

That's just the price you pay for being permitted to write Apps for Steve.

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markkoberlein
"In the end, it really doesn't matter, because in Apple's little App Store
world, they don't even need to pretend they have a trademark. They've given
themselves every legal right to pull an app for no reason at all."

Crazy yes, shocking no. They did the same with the "Pod" in iPod. If you
develop for Apple's devices you play by their rules. I wish Apple would
embrace developers and their apps because they are the reason why people have
stayed with the iPhone.

~~~
tuxychandru
What makes this worse is the fact that "pad" is a very commonly used word both
within and outside technology circles. Notepad, Launchpad, Scratchpad, etc.

This makes me wonder how they can even claim rights on a term so widely used
already in the same domain. As the article notes they don't list "pad" as a
trademark in their own web page!

~~~
markkoberlein
I agree, I don't think that Apple will go after products that have nothing to
do with the iPad. Unless you make an accessory or app for the iPad I think
your safe.

However, it would be fun to watch Apple go after Notepad and ask Microsoft to
change the name because they now own "Pad".

~~~
tuxychandru
That would be funny and indeed is of very low probability. But my point was
how can a company claim rights on a term already in wide use within the same
domain/industry. Trademarks and patents are getting weirder everyday.

~~~
Vivtek
They don't have a trademark on the word "pad". What they have is the ability
to deny people access to the only market available for the iPhone. The
language they use is slanted towards making that seem legitimate, but in the
end, this is not a "trademark" issue in the legal sense, it's Apple owning the
company store.

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lispm
Anyone defending Steve? Anyone with a Stockholm syndrome?

~~~
jws
I'll take a crack.[1]

 _… a trademark is a distinctive sign or indicator used … to identify that the
products … with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source…_
[wikipedia:trademark]

The developer clearly chose their name to associate their product with the
source of the iPad and bask in that trademark owner's glow.

The angry mob here is vomiting "*pad" strawmen, but "ContactPad" is not a
generic word. Notice the capital 'P', notice the absence in any dictionary.

Now google "apple trademark pod" and tell me the developer shouldn't have seen
this coming a mile away.

[1] I have great sympathy for anyone that has to name a product. In the past
I've had to resort to a wordlike sequence of 5 letters for a major product
because the lawyers kept waving us off of (and billing us for) anything we
could think of that was the slightest bit descriptive. We even got waved off
of a particular kind of quark because there was a software firm half a world
away using it in their name.

~~~
gjm11
> strawmen

Speaking of strawmen: I don't see anyone claiming that "ContactPad" _is_ a
generic word. What I see is the claim that it's a non-generic name made from
generic elements none of which is owned by Apple, containing no bits that are
owned by Apple.

(That doesn't mean Apple aren't in the right here. I don't know whether they
are. You can certainly infringe on a trademark without using the exact mark,
and if someone brought out a tablet computer called the EyePad then the
absence of the "i" would be no defence. But "ContactPad"? "JournalPad"? Not
being a lawyer, I have no more than a guess. But my guess is that Apple's
trademark on "iPad" is not in fact enough to make it illegal for someone else
to sell a program that runs on an iPad and has "pad" in its name.)

> tell me the developer shouldn't have seen this coming a mile away.

Now, _that_ I can certainly agree with. (And, also, of course it doesn't
matter whether Apple have any sort of credible trademark claim; they can
control what gets sold on the App Store without one.)

> a particular kind of quark

The quarks are: up, down, top, bottom, charmed, strange. (For a while T,B were
called truth and beauty). Those are all common English words. Why would the
fact that they're also names of quarks stop your lawyers worrying about them?
-- Or do you mean that your product was called something like BottomQuark? You
do realise that there's a _really quite big_ software company whose name is
Quark, right?

Or were you talking about soft cheese?

~~~
jws
My physics eluded me. It was actually a pair of quarks.

------
elblanco
"Says Jobs, on his personal heliPAD that floats on a private lake like a lilly
PAD, while eating an APPLE he's slicing on top of a PAD of paper, standing on
PADded shoes, while his dog limps on an infected PAD nearby, while listening
to 80's synth -pop music using string PADs, while PADding his bank account
with iPad revenue."

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maxklein
We had the same problem. Launched initial app with pad in the name, it was
approved without any problems, but the update was not approved because of the
'Pad' name. But to me it's not a big deal, I just changed it and reuploaded, I
doubt having 'pad' in the name caused a big difference in sales.

The existing *Pad apps are still in the store.

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Tichy
What the frak? I guess over time we'll just have to invent new words for
everything, because so many words are forbidden.

~~~
jws
Did you think Solutia and Cingular were first choices?

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jcromartie
Could someone claim a trademark on "Phone" too? This is ridiculous.

I had various app ideas for which a "Pad" suffix would be very appropriate.
The form of the device just lends itself to apps that _act_ like a pad of
paper.

~~~
Vivtek
Anybody can _claim_ anything they want. In reality, should something go to
court, it would quickly be revealed that Apple does not and cannot have a
trademark on a word as generic as "pad".

But what would you have for it? The court is probably not going to force Apple
to put your app in their store. An antitrust class action might be plausible,
but that's not what we're talking about when we talk about trademarks.

It's misleading on Apple's part to call this a trademark issue.

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jrockway
jrockway: jrockway owns the trademark on "Fuck Apple".

~~~
mdg
You are lame

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confuzatron
Steve's not talking about a US trademark. Trademark law is different in the
Democratic People's Republic of AppStoria.

I'm picturing a 'Being John Malkovich'-esque court scene, where everyone
except the plaintiff is Steve Jobs. "Case Closed!"

