Apple may face another copyright lawsuit

In another step on Apple’s recent lawsuit-a-thon, they may face another for the name of their iPod Nano. Apparently, Creative launched a product called the Zen Nano months before Apple’s tiny wonder made it to market. Looks like Apple needs to do a little more research before they name things

…trademark.

Here’s the issue: does Creative have a trademark on “nano” or “Zen nano?” I believe, and I may be completely wrong here, that you can use a generic term as part of your mark if you give up rights in advance to that word. In other words, to get “Zen nano” as a trademark, Creative could have foregone rights to just the word “nano.” As for using generic words in general, the test is “does it preclude competitors from describing their product.” Example: Apple. Would giving a generic word like Apple trademark protection for computers prevent HP, Gateway, etc from describing their products? No. Therefore Apple is an “arbitrary or fanciful” word in the category of computers. You could not however trademark Apple if you were a fruit stand owner. Otherwise, anytime someone else wanted to describe that they sold apples, you would have a case for trademark infringement. So, the question is “does trademarking “nano” prevent others from describing their products in the realm of portable music players?” I…

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Apple may face another copyright lawsuit

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