Apple’s business power may help it win European ‘iPad’ trademark

“Apple’s power in business may help it win the right to use the iPad name in Europe from the company that owns the trademark there, chip maker STMicroelectronics,” IDG News Service reports. “ST, the French-Italian company, uses the IPAD name in chips sold to mobile phone makers. It stands for Integrated Passive and Active Devices, according to its Web site.”

“A company believed to be a front for Apple filed for a trademark on the iPad name with the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union. It’s application, on Jan. 18, is for rights to the name under a much wider range of classifications than STMicroelectronics. It applied for the right to the iPad name in six classifications, including in two classifications already held by STMicroelectronics, categories 9 and 16,” IDG News Service reports. “Category 9 deals with electronics and components, while category 16 deals with use of the name in print on everything from boxes and paper to software and computer guides.”

IDG News Service reports, “When asked about whether his company will seek a deal with Apple or file a lawsuit over the trademark, STMicroelectronics President and CEO Carlo Bozotti said ‘Our ambition is to have a great customer named Apple.'”

Read more in the full article here.

13 Comments

  1. Surely “IPAD”, all capitalised and used as an acronym of a technical description is a long way removed from “iPad” which utilises the often used colloquial description of a writing tablet, pad – a word in common everyday use; and then puns the word with the lower case letter “i” to represent a digital “pad”.
    And anyway I am not aware of the word “pad” to describe a writing tablet used in either French or Italian.

    So I wouldn’t have thought that Apple would have any kind of problem unless of course the Europeans decide to have a little game with Apple because they have to fill their days somehow (and I wouldn’t put that past them).

  2. Will any american take care of what happens elswhere? Will he care about any non-american rights?
    Steve, who is a world aware american must know that rights don’t belong only to colonialists.

  3. Given Carlo Bozotti’s response it seems to me that yes Apple, Inc can use the iPad name as long as Apple pays STMicroelectronics a lot of money.

    This matter over an already trademarked name in Europe really is just about rights, Apple, Inc wants the right to use iPad and STMicroelectronics wants to be paid yearly for it.

    This to me is what Bozotti means in his ambition to have Apple,Inc a customer of STMicroelectronics.

  4. ‘Surely “IPAD”, all capitalised and used as an acronym of a technical description is a long way removed from “iPad”. . . .’

    Look around: MAC, MAC’s, ‘I’ve always used Mac’s;’ ‘Your going there,’ ‘Its to complicated.’ . . .

    It’s a dumbed-down world. Those who won’t or can’t see those differences could never differentiate among iPad, IPAD, iPAD and ipad. Unfortunately, that’s the greater part of the English-speaking population.

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