Apple has had its share of trademark disputes in recent years, such as Cisco’s trademark of the iPhone trademark and Fujitsu’s ownership of “iPad.” Now iCloud Communications is suing Apple over the iCloud trademark, according to The Next Web.
iCloud Communications is based in Arizona and filed the suit in the U.S. District Court there. The company was founded in 2005 offers a variety of VOIP, SIP, PBX and conferencing services.
The suit, made available on Scribd by The Next Web’s Brad McCarty, includes a history of Apple’s trademark suits going back to the company’s beginnings, when it was sued by the Beatles’ record company Apple Corp. From the suit:
As was the case of the “iPhone” and “iAd” marks, Apple discreetly applied for a foreign trademark registration for ICLOUD months prior to the launch announcement on June 6, 2011 (Apple applied initially in Australia for iPhone, Canada for iAd and Jamaica for iCloud). That foreign ICLOUD application appears to now form the basis for the various iCloud applications for which Apple filed in the United States on June 1, 2011. Apparently, Apple is attempting to use a foreign jurisdiction’s laws to gain priority for its U.S. registrations while circumventing the notice and publication requirements for trademark applications filed here in the United States with respect to “intent-to-use” applications
iCloud Communications described this as “just one more example of Apple’s “act first and worry about the consequences later” approach to trademark use.”
The suit follows allegations that Apple swiped the concept and branding of a rejected App Store app.
Apple bought the iCloud.com domain name from a Swedish cloud-based operating system provider called Xcerion in April. Xcerion re-branded its cloud OS iCloud to CloudMe that same month. Xcerion is not mentioned in iCloud Communciations’ complaint.
