Butt of the Tiger...

[omahas]

Ganked from my good pal technoshaman:

Apparently Tiger Direct Inc. has decided to sue Apple over the use of the name "Tiger".

Now, not only is this a joke because they *just* filed the damn thing and are requesting an injunction in time for OS 10.4 "Tiger" to roll out, but everyone has known about 10.4 for, like, forever. So why didn't these dweebs start this many, many months ago? Why, for the money, of course. They're hoping that Apple will just pay them to make them go away, I'm sure.

But here's the funniest part of all. They claim to own the trademark to the name "Tiger". Anyone with a few brain cells to rub together can totter on down to the USPTO website and do a search on the word "Tiger". And when one does, one finds that *no one* owns a registered trademark on the name "Tiger". Four different companies have filed for trademarks on the name that are still live filings, but none have been granted yet. And unless Tiger Direct Inc, which is a Florida company, has suddenly moved to New York, Ohio, Isreal, or China, they haven't made any of the filings, either.

So, what, they thought Apple's lawyers wouldn't do a trademark search? They thought no one would figure out their little scheme and catch on to the fact that maybe companies like, oh, Triumph have been using the damn name for years? They didn't wonder why Apple hadn't filed for the trademark themselves???

Don't know about you, but I've got no temptation whatsoever to use this company's products or services anytime in the future.

Comments

[wendor.livejournal.com]

Actually, they do have it registered as a service mark. It is registration number 2526739 with serial number 75915934 filed on January 27, 2000 and granted on January 8, 2002.

The reason your search probably didn't find it is that it shows the registrant as "Systemax" which appears to be another operating name for the same company (see excerpt below)
"(REGISTRANT) TigerSoftware, Inc. CORPORATION FLORIDA Executive Tower, 7th Floor 800 Douglas Entrance Coral Gables FLORIDA 33134
(LAST LISTED OWNER) SYSTEMAX INC. CORPORATION BY CHANGE OF NAME, BY ASSIGNMENT, BY CHANGE OF NAME DELAWARE 22 HARBOR PARK DRIVE PORT WASHINGTON NEW YORK 11050"

I still don't think this will help them at all, but they do have a registration to base their claim on.

Oh, and Apple did file for a trademark themselves. It is serial number 78269988 filed on July 2, 2003.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you click on the assignment information link, it looks like Systemex is in fact a different company (in New York) that in fact assigned the mark to Tiger Direct sometime in 2002. Looks like it was sold to them (not a surprise, that's how my company got MacRadio, though it wasn't registered then).

It's very annoying that my first search didn't bring this up. You'd think that typing in the word Tiger would bring up all instances of Tiger that have been filed, let alone registered. You'd think. Sigh.

And yeah, I don't think it'll do them any good either.