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.

Why did they wait so long?

[GFLPraxis]

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?

And wait a sec. Are these guys telling me that they have a patent on the word "Tiger"? Somebody better get some lawyers for the local zoo.

Oh, good lord.

[Ledneh]

I think that's really all that needs to be said.

Are they kidding?

[nizo]

First of all a trademark search shows something like three other companies who have just the word "Tiger" trademarked in the first page alone (with 1759 records total with tiger somewhere in the name). Second, why did they take so long to bring this up? Certainly Apple has some version of Mac OS Tiger trademarked, isn't it past the time to complain already? The real reason seems to be:

At the root of the issue appears to internet search results. Tiger Direct contends that Apple's use of the name has adversely affected its ranking amongst the Internet's largest search engines....

So does that mean they plan on taking on some non-profit who appears above them on google, because hey everyone knows I might get confused while searching for "tiger" instead of "tigerdirect" (which shows them ranked first btw). This whole things stinks of a "get rich quick by settlement" scam.

Money grab

[Raindance]

This is a grab for quick settlement money, no questions about it. Clever and slimey-- Apple can either take their chances fighting it (with a small chance to be hurt big) or pay TigerDirect cash. Blackmail, essentially, and the timing of this suit is proof.

I sincerely hope they'll fight it, not only because I believe the lawsuit is meritless and one should never give into blackmail, but also...

Apple has taken the "we defend our legal rights" stance when they've sued Tiger leakers. Fair enough. If they reverse their stance on that now when up against someone with lawyers, I think that'd be quite hypocritical.

So, sock it to them, Apple.

The point of waiting...

[no_opinion]

Maybe their plan was to wait to file the lawsuit so that Apple is under more pressure to settle quickly.

That's a tough one...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know who to hate in this one...the retailer with incredibly bad business practices or the crazy Mac zelots...go...BSD?

Butthead Astronomer still dead

[codefrog]

You'd think someone would have pointed out to Tiger that this has been tried before and didn't end with happy results for the complainant...

Maybe they should license 'DAK' so they can give a boost to Tiger's competition instead.
yeah ... OS X 10.5 'DAK'.

TigerDirect looking for publicity?

[Anonymous Slacker]

Seriously, why they would wait so long when OS X 'Tiger' was announced months ago, I do not know.
Maybe they're just trying to get their name out there, I hadn't thought of or looked at TigerDirect's web site in a few years, as I had found other retailers to buy computer junk through.
It's not like I personally would think that Apple's operating system had anything to do with a mass PC parts vendor.

In America, any publicity is good publicity, and the easiest lately seems to be to target a popular company/person with a lawsuit, irregardless of how frivolous.
Any serious action to prevent Apple's use of the name should have been sought when it was first announced, not wait until the eve of the product launch. This just gives the impression of riding on the coattails of Apple's popularity.

Well..

[Anonymous Coward]

When I originally heard of OSX Tiger, I never even imagined a link "TigerDirect." Not that I care about Apple, but now when I hear OSX Tiger, I'll be sure to think "TigerDirect, another corporate bastard."

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[fredistheking]

Gimme a break. Just like Apple sued Mac Mall and Club Mac, huh? This is just a grab for funds by Tiger Direct. They are allegedly being investigated for their rebate practices and their reseller rating has gone to shit. I wouldn't doubt it if this is a last ditch attempt to remain solvent.

Re:Money grab

[radish]

Apple has taken the "we defend our legal rights" stance when they've sued Tiger leakers. Fair enough. If they reverse their stance on that now when up against someone with lawyers, I think that'd be quite hypocritical.


I don't think it's at all clear cut that Apple are in the right here. Sure, TigerDirect could have been more friendly than waiting until release day to slap on the suit, but if they own the trademark, they own it. Apple could (and should) have done a search before picking that name.

Re:Good Timing

[Rick the Red]

No kidding. If Apple is getting tons of publicity over "Tiger" then what better time for Tiger Direct to make their move? This will certainly get Tiger Direct publicity, which is really what this is all about: brand recognition. They want everyone to think of them, not Apple, when they hear "Tiger." If their web site is visited by only ten percent of the people who never heard of Tiger Direct before this lawsuit, it won't be able to keep up.

just like the Windows lawsuit

[Leers]

you can't trademark a common word. They will lose just like Microsoft did against Lindows.

Free press for TigerDirect

[Anonymous Coward]

When was the last time you read so much about TigerDirect? They just want to piggyback on the hoopla around Tiger OS's release.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[Baricom]

I am not a lawyer, but I can see Tiger Direct's point here. Tiger Direct certainly isn't guaranteed a position in the search engines, but it's reasonable to argue that if another company in the same sector (computer sales) infringes on a trademark they claim, hurting their search ranking in the process, then they've been injured by trademark infringement.

On the other hand, I don't see how filing the suit the day before the product launch could be anything but a stunt.

I'm rooting for Apple on this one.

Re:just like the Windows lawsuit

[rjelks]

..ummm...[cough]...I think the lawyers said we have to call it Linspire now. I believe the paid around 20M in a settlement.

Specific domain? Tell that to the WWF.

[Llama_STi]

WWF was having battles with the other WWF for years about the name. The World Widelife Fund finally won a few years back over the World Wrastlin' Federation. Are they in the same specific domain? Maybe, they both have to do with animals...

Re:Tigerdirect is cheap for a reason

[javaxman]

Don't fool yourself -- you get what you pay for. TigerDirect is cheap because their service sucks the big one.

Service and products.

A family member bought a WinXP-loaded Celeron from them. I told her to expect the machine to be worth exactly what she paid. I didn't know I should have warned her to expect it to be worth less than she paid. Cheap doesn't begin to describe it... you don't have to know computers to know it's cheap, cheap, cheap. This is the company that makes Dell look good.

Isn't Sun's Java 1.5 Named Tiger also?

[raal]

I thought Sun's Java is also named Tiger. I wonder if Tiger Direct will sue them next...

What a wonderful system we have of lawsuits and such.

Re:Money grab

[Humorously_Inept]

It's not just TigerDirect the mail-order sales company, but TigerDirect the mail-order computer hardware/software/accessories sales company. If you're not well versed and you're out looking for one of these Tigers, it's very likely that the other will confuse you.

This is to say nothing of who is right, wrong or the owner of whatever trademark, just that there does appear to be a legitimate cause for friction here.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[HairyCanary]

I do not understand their complaint about Google search rank. If I type "tiger direct", I get www.tigerdirect.com as the first result. Does it get any better than that?

If I type "tiger", the first result has to do with real tigers (the kind with paws). And that makes sense to me as well.

So I do not see their point. I think the real issue is that over the last year or so, Tiger Direct has become more and more irrelevant as other bargain stores enter the market, and they are hurting financially. Apples has comparatively deep pockets and Tiger Direct may be looking for some revenue.

Serves Apple right

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the exact type of law suit Apple tends to file. Nice to see them get smacked by one themselves.

PR stunt

[BagMan2]

This is either a slimy attempt to blackmail Apple into giving them a wad of cash to make the problem go away, rather than face a possible injunction that would seriously mess up their marketting plans.

Or, it's a PR stunt by TigerDirect. I would imagine TigerDirects' website has gotten more hits in the past few hours just from this slashdot story than they have all week.

Even if TigerDirect loses (and they will), they benefit greatly from all the press coverage. You know the old saying, no news is bad news.

Are any of you familiar with the law?

[lonb]

There is no law that says a company must sue immediately upon learning of a trademark infringement. In fact, it almost never makes sense to do so. Let's look at two examples:

1. If the infringing company is smaller, then it makes sense to wait until they get big enough to make the infringement worth suing over.

2. In the case of a larger company infringing IP, then it makes sense to wait until they are in a tight situation to make the case more likely to go in the claimant's favor.

Lawsuits seem to favor the contender with more money, planning a suit strategically makes sense and is perfectly legal.

Also, note the term "infringe" and its etymology. Abusing someone's IP is not always cut and dry, and certainly it's not here. IANAL, but it seems TigerDirect's motives would not affect the legality or accuracy of their claims or purpose for suing.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[lawyerguy]

Your reasoning is good, but you're missing a key piece.

Tiger and Apple are direct competitors for certain products, including computer systems and iPods. (Recall that Apple is a retailer in addition to a manufacturer.) Tiger is claiming (as described in their filed court papers) that Apple is using its "Tiger" mark to sell not only the OS, but ALSO this hardware. They give evidence already of Jobs touting Tiger as an incentive for people to buy new Macs, and of iPod and Powerbook giveaways at the 10.4 Premeire. So that's the big gripe... Apple's trademark on 'Tiger' is limited to operating systems only, and not hardware.

So it's not really the Google issue (though that's undoubtedly important to them) -- it's Apple's broadening its use of the Tiger mark to expand into a directly competing market.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[brentcastle]

... but they won't be a few months from now!!

Re:Money grab

[kalel666]

Why do I get the feeling that when this is over, tigerdirect will be very unhappy? I mean, taking on Apple legal is like walking up to Mike Tyson and bitchslapping him because you don't like how he looks. You're just asking for it. Right or wrong, I think tigerdirect will be handed an ass whuppin.

Maybe their lawyer will change his name afterwards to "Claude Balls".

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[Hatta]

I am a lawyer and I believe you reasoning is wrong.

[cut]

TigerDirect is suing based on its prior trademark of the word Tiger. They are not claiming ownership over the search engine results, they are asserting that the search engine is evidence of the damage caused to them by the copyright infringement.

Eh?

Time to react wtih my eyeballs and wallet

[Rude Turnip]

Dear CmdrTaco:

Please remove Tiger Direct as a sponsor from your banner ads or I shall use Firefox's Adblock to filter *all* your banner ads. Your choice. Thanks.

MOD PARENT TROLL

[Lehk228]

obviously does not know the difference between trademark and copyright, not a lawyer, just a karma whore

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[damiangerous]

Wasn't Microsoft turned down when they tried to trademark "Windows"?

No, Microsoft owns several trademarks on just the word "Windows" in various categories, the oldest active one being from 1992 (#74274174).

Apple couldn't trademark "System"

Most likely because it was already in use or just because the word "System" is a fairly integral part of what the product is. You couldn't trademark the term "truck" in relation to selling pick-up trucks because it's not a unique name for your product. At the time Windows was registered windowing operating systems certainly existed, but no one marketed/sold them as that until Microsoft did. Calling your operating system "Windows" was a unique idea. At the time Apple would have tried to trademark "System" people would have been selling items called operating systems for easily a decade or more and calling your product "system x" would not have adequately differentiated it.

oy vey

[meester fox]

People will get all up in a fit over nothing. How can you "own" the word "tiger?" It's getting to the point where you can't do much of anything without stepping much on peoples toes. I personally can tell the difference between a sotre and a piece of software. I think this is getting flat out stupid. Like how companies are trying to patent certain sections of the human genome. Which means if you want to work on a cure for cancer and part of where you need to go is owned by them, you need to get permission and the such to do work there. Now, the human genome is in everyone. and yet the patent office seems to hand out stuff like candy. So I really do hope a court just laughs at this. Because it's so... bloody stupid. And II don't see how they could receive damages from it. Aside from the search engine thing, but then again that's probably become a more relavant result.

Re:They do????

[LightwaveNet]

Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Mail order catalog services featuring computers and computer related products; and Retail store services featuring computers and computer related products. FIRST USE: 19871020. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19871020

So... uh... does Apple's Tiger OS qualify as being related to a mail order catalog service and retail store services featuring computers and computer related products?

That connection seems pretty vague to me.

Re:Okay.

[kerrle]

1.) They don't have a trademark on Tiger, while Apple does. 2.) Trademarks for a computer reseller and a computer OS are in different domains and in most cases wouldn't conflict anyway. 3.) Timing is suspicious to say the least. Personally, I see no case here whatsoever - just the hope of a quick settlement rather than a delayed launch or a court case.

It's the timing I find hard to stomach

[iwrigley]

If TigerDirect had filed this suit six months ago, or even three months ago, I would have had some sympathy with them. But to do it the day before Apple releases OS X 10.4 smacks far too much of trying to strongarm Apple into settling to avoid the injunction. Blackmail is an ugly word, but in this case...

I used to buy from TigerDirect, and recommended them to clients. I will no longer be doing so. And I'll be writing to them telling them exactly why: a company which would file such an injunction this late in the day is not a company I wish to do business with.

Another example of the stupid U.S. legal system

[Nice2Cats]

Ah, the American legal system strikes again, calling forth armies of lawyers to waste a company's money on stupid claims that would be laughed out of court anywhere else, creating costs that in the end have to be paid for by the customer, and keeping people from doing serious work. These clowns waited one whole year to file at the last moment? Try telling a judge in Germany or Japan or the Netherlands how acutely you have been feeling the pain after pulling this kind of a stunt. If this was for real, they would have filed their claim eleven months ago the latest. Unfortunately, it is even conceivable they're going to get away with it.

The anachronism that is American's 18th Century Common Law [wikipedia.org] legal system has proven itself inferior to the modern Civil Law [wikipedia.org] systems in the rest of the world so many times just in the last years just in tech that it just isn't funny anymore. You do remember that SCO is still wasting IBM's time and money in a U.S. court, with no end in sight? You notice how the rest of the world got that crap out of their systems long ago?

Sadly for us Americans, there is no chance in hell for a serious, basic and fundamental legal reform. With a Congress filled full of lawyers, our sputtering system of codified greed won't even have to face the slight correction of a tort reform.

Re:So I can start AppleSoftware then?

[Mr. Underbridge]

What about something as generic as "Apple"?

True. So if you find a field that Apple doesn't dabble in - and that's damned hard these days btw, otherwise I'd have made the very point in my first post - then you could do so. It would be tough to call anything computer related "Apple" because they're pretty ubiquitous. They make hardware, software, OS, etc.

But yes, you can name your company Apple (as Apple vacations has done) and not infringe.

Common nouns

[vorpal22]

First off, how does it make sense to anyone whatsoever that common nouns like "tiger", "windows", etc. should be subject to copyright? It's absolute lunacy. If these companies exercised any cleverness in coming up with a unique name that wasn't already found in the language of manufacture, alright, I could see how copyrights should be allowed... but for existing nouns? There's no creativity to be found there.

Re:TigerDirect has Tiger systems...

[Doctor_Jest]

Yeah, but since they don't actually own the trademark to Tiger, they're really shooting blanks on this one...

Not to mention they just lost the ability to sell iPods. Wait a few days, if this gets any more press and any more aggravation and really does affect Tiger's sale (not release, since they're not going to court tomorrow), Apple will wait until TigerDirect loses.... then pull the reseller stuff and prevent them from selling ANY Apple branded products.

Now, in the case of iPods, that's gotta be a money maker even for these clods (judging from the sale of iPods in general...).

So I guess they haven't thought this crap through. Not that I'd buy from them anyway with their track record, but they have indeed sealed their fate with the millions of mac users (if this inhibits them from buying Tiger) who will never buy from them again, or for the first time. Not to mention they'll tell everyone they know not to as well.

Bad publicity only works for movie stars... :)

Apple & OS9

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember the whole OS9 issue? OS9 is an embedded OS, I don't have time to find more specifics, and they sued Apple over the release of OS9. The judge found that the markets were too different for the two products to be confused with one another. And as the above poster mentioned, we arn't even dealing with like products here, and I have a feeling Apple fields a better leagle team.

Re:pre-emptive lawsuit

[AKAImBatman]

That is called a *sig*. You can turn it off in your preferences if it annoys you. But ignoring the opinion in favor of attacking the sig is considered poor form around here and will generally get you modded down. Now go back and read again.

No Merit

[lux55]

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

TigerDirect is a seller of PCs, and as such has an interest in seeing Apple do worse. That's why they waited and sat quietly while Apple promoted Tiger for the past 12 months, only to threaten to sue and seek an injunction days before its release. That's grounds for a dismissal of their claim, IMO, because they knowingly let their "trademark" go undefended for that length of time prior to acting. It's not self-defense, it's acting with malicious intentions.

Not a moron

[bigmouth_strikes]

From a legal standpoint it *is* odd that TigerDirect waited for so long to file this, and that is likely something that the judge will inquire about.

From a cheap-bastard standpoint it is clear why they waited so long, but that won't help them win this case.

Nasty tactics

[MrWorf]

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

No, it's pure logic. By now, Apple cannot change the name or do anything to avoid it. They'll have to fight it (which takes time and might hinder sales of MacOS X Tiger) or settle.

Clever tactics on TigerDirect, but a truly horrible way of acting. I hope they (as in TIgerDirect) looses the case since they have seen it coming and have had time to act.

Re:So I can start AppleSoftware then?

[zotz]

"No they didn't. They have a computer sales business named Tiger. There's no OS tamed Tiger. 'Til tomorrow."

So, if Microsoft changes the release name of Longhorn to Apple, that will be OK because Apple has a Computer Manufacturing Business named Apple but no OS named Apple and therefore it is OK for MS to name their OS Apple?

Seriously. (I am honestly asking that question.)

all the best,

drew