Apple Sued over Tiger, Injunction Sought

An anonymous reader writes "Online retailer Tiger Direct has reportedly sued Apple over the use of the Tiger name just one day before the Mac maker is scheduled to roll-out its next-generation Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' operating system, according to an article at AppleInsider. TigerDirect, which owns trademarks on the names Tiger, TigerDirect and TigerSoftware, has requested an injunction that could prevent Friday's launch of the Tiger OS. Tiger Direct is also seeking damages and legal fees. 'Apple Computer has created and launched a nationwide media blitz led by Steven Jobs, overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references,' Tiger Direct's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit." While the suit may have some merit, it is odd for them to wait until now to try and halt such a heralded product.

Tigger

[fembots]

Disney will be joining the battle soon as Tiger is misleading to Tigger.

pre-emptive lawsuit

[visualight]

Someone at TigerDirect suddenly realized that Apple would/might sue them over the name tiger and they figured they better sue first.

Good Timing

[RobertTaylor]

While the suit may have some merit, it is odd for them to wait until now to try and halt such a heralded product.

Not when now is the time the threat of an injunction to stop distribution could result in a multi zillion pound pay out ;)

Well,

[soupdevil]

They should be fine. If I remember correctly, they have at least one lawyer on staff.

I hereby copyright the following:

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

Lion, Bear, Barracuda, Orangutan, Giraffe, Rhinocerous, Bobcat, Mountain Lion, Rattlesnake, and any other unused names of the animal kingdom hertofore unpublicised. Document following, please do not step on my rights. Thank you.

Break out the magic markers

[CatGrep]

Jobs: "OK I need about a million volunteers: 1) Cross out the 'Tiger' on the box 2) Write 'Big Orange Cat with black stripes' "

Yeah

[pancake_lover]

I heard Tiger Woods is pretty pissed too.

In Other News..

[\\]

Microsoft has renamed their long delayed Windows release "Windows Forever". Bill Gates was quoted as saying, "If it worked for the Duke Nukem franchise, it'll work for us."

Also, I have no idea what

Wait a minute..

[Conan D. Librarian]

If this is true, then Jaguar [jaguar.com] has standing to sue as well.

"But your honor, these shysters have a prior history of this conduct!"

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[ShaniaTwain]

Is there some sort of competition going on for the much coveted title of litigious bastards [thescogroup.com]?

Re:Break out the magic markers

[ch-chuck]

better yet, "butt headed online retailer"

Re:Break out the magic markers

[learn fast]

How do you know it's not black with orange stripes?

it's so confusing

[ch-chuck]

I've ordered several things from TigerDirect. Now, thanks to Apple, I don't know if I should enter purchases into a web page or just send it directly to the operating system.

Re:Break out the magic markers

[hawaiian717]

Write 'Big Orange Cat with black stripes' "

You mean they're going to rename it Mac OS X Garfield? That ought to make Paws, Inc. [garfield.com] happy.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Williams H. Gates III Foundation has just announced a $1 million donation to the University of Texas, home of the Longhorns football team.

Re:Tigger..

[ShaniaTwain]

..Would that be an operating system whose tops are made out of rubber and whose bottoms are made out of springs?

"Its not so much a crash.. its more of a bounce, it'll be back up soon."

Re:Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard Tiger Woods is pretty pissed too.

Tiger Woods sells computers. Cool.

Re:Yeah

[SunPin]

Tiger Direct is suing Tiger Woods as well. Nobody names their child "Tiger." He is obviously using the success of Tiger Direct to increase his exposure.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

Ballmer: <shhhh-hfffff>The farce is strong in this one. How easily our attempts at stemming the tide of competition are misiniterpreted by fools...</shhhh-hfffff>
Gates: Mwahaha.

I felt a disturbance in the force...

[rbochan]

... as if millions of geeks suddenly added "0.0.0.0 tigerdirect.com" to their hosts file and a web server suddently went silent.

Re:Tigger

[Anonymous Coward]

As seen on my Crystal MythTV Ball:

"...and in other news, Apple is being sued by computer hardware reseller TigerDirect as a result of changing the name of their newest operating system release to 'Asshole Hardware Retailer.'"

Re:Tigerdirect is cheap for a reason

[pjbgravely]

I was getting Tiger Directs catalogues before I ever got my first PC. They seemed to support Linux well, and even had a Linux keyboard with a Tux key instead the Windows key. When I finally was in a position to buy from them, I found their web site had a huge " We recommend Microsoft Windows" sign and the Linux stuff was no where to be found. I did finally buy some stuff from them but wasn't thrilled by the 2 week shipping time.

Re:Oh Yeah?

[Anonymous Coward]

Candy's boyfriend? (from Red Dwarf)

Re:Why did they wait so long?

[petsounds]

Everyone has known it was going to be called Tiger for the last YEAR. Why do they wait until release day to file a lawsuit?

My personal tinfoil theory is that Microsoft slipped TigerDirect a generous amount of money to try to sabotage Apple's launch.

Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!

[C.]

Make sure to press suit against Giant Tiger [gianttiger.ca] so they don't end up taking precious advertizing space from tigger direct.

Oh, and sue Africa too. I heard there were some critters trying to usurp the Tiger name, too.

Re:Break out the magic markers

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, that's a possibility. Remember when they code-named one of their OSes as Sagan? Carl Sagan sued, and so they changed the code-name to "Butthead Astronomer."

Maybe they should change the OS name to "Pissant Web Peddler."

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[b17bmbr]

sun doesn't sell java. they could call it java 1.5 goatse and nobody'd care. it's still just "java".

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[IdleTime]

What's next? Tiger Woods suing all of them?

Re:Specific domain? Tell that to the WWF.

[uberdave]

I think the World Wildlife Fund screwed up big time. They should have licenced the WWF acronym and website to the "wrestling" folks. They could have taken in more money in a single WWF RAW event than an entire year's fundraising.

Re:Tigger

[milimetric]

In other news, Apple turns right back around and sues the actual Tiger animal (panthera tigris). Apple is claiming that the animal misled them to name their product after something occuring in nature and did not notify them that twenty million other companies out there have used the name Tiger to suggest a powerful sleek product.

In other shocking news, joining in TigerDirect's "Lawsuit" is a conglomeration of six hundred thousand Chinese Restaurants who also feel wronged by Apple's use of the word Tiger.

To only add to the confusion, the actual Apple fruit (malus pumila) is suing Apple for their misleading representation that the Apple fruit is always bitten out of.

*&#@^( you! you crazy, money hungry, insane, can't do business bastards who sue for stupid ass reasons.

Only my favorite animal in the whole world, gosh!

[mat catastrophe]

Just change the first letter to 'l.' [tigers-animal-actors.com]

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

The case definately adds up because TigerDirect has a financial interest in its branding of the word Tiger and Apple's infringement of the word Tiger - for a profit - is causing them a loss of noteriety and thus damages their business.

Yeah, just like Apple to try to ride the coat-tails of the great TigerDirect brand name. I wonder how many consumers will now be misled into buying Apple software after merely following their natural curiousity about all the buzz surrounding TigerDirect.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

but the manufactures site said it was a 54,000 RPM (note, this was a long time ago)

Well damn, even at 54K RPM I'd have bought the drive (maybe you meant 5400?)

Sosumi

[ancyent_marinere]

Oh my! I think Tiger Direct [apple.com] has an unbeatable point with this lawsuit of theirs. Now that Tiger Direct [apple.com] has helped us to see the light, it is only fair that we change the name to Mac OS X Sosumi out of respect for Tiger Direct [apple.com]!

Re:Tigerdirect is cheap for a reason

[Anonymous Coward]

Try this link:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/downloa d2 .asp?Product_ID=149&dlcentric=8060&Product_Name=Au digy+2&OSName=Windows+XP

Use at your own risk, I'm not responsible for liability, breach of contract, damage to computer, INAL, in soviet russia, ect.

Real reason for the money grubbing suit...

[Anonymous Coward]

...is that TigerDirect can't afford the ad rates for "sponsored" links at Google et al any other way than by suing SOMEBODY....

Re:Some points for TigerDirect

[russellh]

You make some good points. It occurs to me as I read your post that someone who is confused by TigerDirect and Apple's Tiger is probably wondering why TigerDirect doesn't sell, you know, actual live Tigers... direct.

Republic of Ireland sued..

[solas]

..for numerous references to 'Celtic Tiger' economy in mid to late nineties.

Re:Tigger

[jd]

The animal formerly known a a tiger, owing to mounting legal debts, has changed its name. It will now be known as an asparagus. It is hoped this will also confuse poachers, as hunting asparagus doesn't have the same ring to it.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[jmv]

I personally wouldn't mind getting a 54,000 RPM drive. It will sure be *way* faster than my current 5,400 RPM drive ;-)

Re:Tigger

[MasonMcD]

but this won't stop those assholes at Disney.

Luckily for the dickheads and assholes at Disney, not only are their tops made out of rubber, but their bottoms are made out of springs.

Re:in regards to the flamebait moderation...

[FredFnord]

I don't insult anyone or any single thing,

So I take it that the title 'You Fuckers' was meant in a kind and loving sense?

I actually got a good giggle out of this, because I think you honestly believe that titling a comment 'You fuckers' and calling everyone who disagrees with you 'brainwashed' is not flame-bait.

But okay, I'll bite... perhaps you're complaining about the moderation because you don't really know what 'flame-bait' means. Flame-bait doesn't necessarily mean that the person who is posting is wrong... it just means that their comment was posted in just a way as to invite flamage.

For example: if I posted that I thought that desktop Linux was really coming along, and that more people really ought to consider it as an alternative to Windows, I wouldn't be modded down as flamebait. If I posted that desktop Linux still had too many usability problems and that Windows was still better for end users, I wouldn't either. If I posted that I thought anyone who used Windows when Linux was available was a cretin who shouldn't be allowed to breed, I would almost certainly be modded down as flamebait (unless I said it in a fucking hilarious way), and the same goes for saying the same thing about people using desktop Linux.

So, in case you still can't see what you did, a helpful hint: calling people 'fuckers' because they believe different things than you, even if what they believe is so obviously wrong that you just can't imagine anyone actually believing it and it makes you nauseous to even consider the idea that anyone could believe it... well, that invites flames. And thus is flame-bait.

Dickhead.

-fred

PS: By the way, you're also wrong.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[soft_guy]

They are worried that Apple might ruin their bad name.

Re:Tigger

[Anonymous Coward]

but this won't stop those assholes at Disney

Yeah! Those bastards and their hypothetical lawsuits. They can go right to hell.

free sw naming

[Kynde]

Apple should've done what the free software people have done for years, i.e. name the releases with names even the authors have no fecking idea what they mean.

Irony...

[WIAKywbfatw]

Ah, the irony.

"Asparagus" is what we now (mainly since the end of World War II) call "sparrow grass": apparently, sparrow grass just wasn't as trendy a name, so it got dropped.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[justMichael]

Umm, I'd care... I would need to find a new editor as one of the requirements for jEdit would be goatse.

And quite frankly that's enough to make me use emacs, but i can't remember if OS X runs on emacs ;)

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[MikeFM]

When I worked for them they used a home edition of M$ Access as the backend to their website. It was pretty funny actually.

Re:Tigger

[vdub12]

They boncy bouncy bouncy Fun fun fun fun fun the wondrerfull thing about "tiger direct" is there the only one. Thank god there the only one! That company is souch a rip off there worce then frys. and thats realy realy realy bad. :-)

Re:Tigger..

[GraemeDonaldson]

Yes and we all know how the BSD and KHTML hate it when other people use their code. Oh, wait.

Re:Tigger..

[Ruphuz]

Count me in! --- Tiger Woods.

Re:Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!

[minus9]

"Oh, and sue Africa too. I heard there were some critters trying to usurp the Tiger name, too."

A tiger? In Africa?
What?
A TIGER? In Africa?

Shhh!

Re:So I can start AppleSoftware then?

[szelus]

OK then kid, you find a name less than 15 letters that hasn't been used in some way - any way, according to your logic - with computers. See how ridiculous that gets?

OK. Then asparagus! I believe it hasn't been used with computers yet!
Is anybody brave enough to setup a new "Asparagus Computer" brand or Asparagus OS?

Re:Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!

[DamienNightbane]

Only in Kenya.