Cartier sues Apple over trademark infringement [updated]
By Will Park on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 2:20 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Financial/Corporate News, iPhone, iPhone OS
![fakewatch iphone 300x225 Cartier sues Apple over trademark infringement [updated]](http://images.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/fakewatch-iphone-300x225.jpg "fakewatch-iphone")
The iPhone has become a big target for legal-minded Americans looking to take a bite out of the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) pie. But, most of the iPhone lawsuits to date have been filed by ordinary citizens, not big-name corporations like Cartier. This time around, the game has changed. Luxury lifestyle brand Cartier is more than a little miffed by Apple’s apparent infringement on its highly recognizable trademark, and they’ve filed suit against the iPhone maker to hammer that point home.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court in Manhattan, claims that iPhone applications like Digitopolis‘ Fake Watch and Fake Watch Gold Edition use Cartier’s trademarks without permission. Apple is being sued for allowing the applications into the iPhone AppStore.
Don’t bother trying to look up the iPhone applications, as they’ve been pulled from the AppStore as of this writing. It’s unclear what kind of compensation Cartier was looking to get, but it’s entirely possible that the lawsuit was a fast-track tactic to get the offending iPhone applications taken down.
[Update]
Hours after filing the suit against Apple, Cartier withdrew the lawsuit. It seems Cartier’s legal maneuvering may have indeed been aimed at nothing more than getting Apple to pull the offending iPhone apps off the AppStore.
Apple deserves every copyright infringement case that comes their way. After the way they jumped all over anyone whom they perceived as violating their iPhone copyrighted materials, they deserve a serious taste of their own medicine.
Cartier want to prevent people publishing pictures of their products? Make sure keep yours concealed in public, in case someone takes a picture.
Or is it that the hands go round in the picture, making it a copy of a Cartier watch? Or are they afraid that customers might realise what an utterly pointless, obsolete product a Cartier watch is, because they will see for themselves that a pointless animated picture is just as good? (I haven’t worn a watch for ten years, nor any mechanical watch for 25 years).
John Tantillo named Apple the weekly brand winner on his marketing blog (once again) for the way they handled this situation, saying it’s a great example of how successful marketing requires constant corrections/adjustments to a company’s course – “the key is responding promptly and correctly to evolving realities.”
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