Apple Inc. got most of what it wanted in a federal lawsuit that was decided last week.
At issue was the company's patented "i-" trademark, which the company alleged was being used without a license by scores of products, towns, cities and even states across the United States. District Judge Andrew Stoudt agreed with the company in his ruling, but Stoudt stopped short of giving Apple everything it was asking for.
"There can be no doubt that the 'i-' sound at the beginning of a name belongs exclusively to Apple Inc., as long as the spelling of said name corresponds to the traditional spelling of Apple products in that it uses the letter 'I' in its long pronunciation, that is to say, as long as it rhymes with 'lie' and 'rye.'" Stoudt wrote in his decision.
Yet the judge denied Apple's claims that it also should be able to collect license fees for names beginning with the "eye" sound that do not begin with the letter "I."
"This court is not prepared to rebrand eye-liner as 'i-Liner,' or to change eyeglasses into 'i-Glasses' at this time," wrote the judge.
Most affected by the ruling will be the states of i-Daho and i-Owa, which must pay Apple 4 percent of their tax revenues for the past 10 years and will pay a 2 percent licensing fee on all future revenues as long as they continue to use Apple's trademark.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter of i-Daho, a Republican, hailed the ruling as "fair" and "ultimately good" for the people of his state.
"Yes, it will cost us over the short term to pay the licensing fees," Otter said in a frank and candid interview with this reporter. "However, how much more might i-Dahoans ultimately gain by i-Daho's association with Apple? Already, my staff is working on rolling out a new and improved i-Daho by early next year. At this point, we're calling it 'i-Daho 2.0.'"
The new version of the state will offer all the same features but in a slick new portable format that is more user friendly for the average resident, the governor said. He expects that long lines will be forming in Boise days before the new state's release.
Not so happy with the decision is Pete Stankler of Gumtree, Maine, whose business, formerly known as "Pete's Winter Time Icicle Removal Service," is now "Pete's Frozen Pointy Thing Removal Service."
"I had to take the 'Winter Time' out of the name because it would have been way too long," Stankler said. "Unfortunately, here in Maine, we have i-Cicles nine months of the year, so now I have to work three times as much."
That's not all bad, however, since the extra hours will help him pay Apple back the $58,000 he owes as his share of the court's judgment.
The Missouri town of i-Beria isn't even trying to comply with the ruling. Mayor Jim Schlupp directed the city attorney to file for bankruptcy protection on Friday.
"We probably could have weathered this if not for the lawsuit we lost last year, coincidentally, with the same judge," Schlupp said. "We have 741 residents who each owe $8,432 to Budweiser and Miller because we have the word 'beer' in our name."
Ken York is the assistant/Sunday editor of The Daily Record. Past columns and other writings may be viewed on his blog at http://ken-york.blogspot.com.
