IP disputes out of control?

It always pays to search around and read the fun news articles. Apple Computer is being sued for their new operating system, called Tiger. Tiger Direct is not happy, claiming trademark infringement. This article offers an interesting idea. Bob Young, a guy big into Linux, and owner of the Ontario Tiger-Cats, has offered Apple the rights to the Tiger name. His team has been around for 136 years, which should give some nice rights to the term "Tiger." The article states:

Young said the press release was a way to “have fun” with the situation, but it also raises an issue crucial to the IT sector, that of intellectual property (IP) rights. Young figures IP disputes in the tech industry are out of hand.

“Tiger the operating system and TigerDirect the mail order company, there’s no possibility for confusion on the consumer’s part,” he said, pointing out that trademark laws are supposed keep consumers from getting confused as to who made a product, what it does, etc.

But in this case, the product isn’t the problem, Young said. “It’s the word at issue. Going after Apple for using ‘Tiger’ is going after them for using a common word, not for trademark. It’s a great example of how out of control the IP claims are in our industry.”

Mr. Young does raise some interesting points. The question boils down to whether consumers will confuse the two tigers. Such a generic name can indeed be trademarked, and it is actually stronger than a more descriptive term, such as Windows (which describes the layout of the folders on the screen). The more imaginative the trademark, the more protection it obtains. Thus the term Kodak, which was invented by the company, is quite strong. There has to be some sort of imaginative leap to get a strong trademark, and making up a name results in a strong trademark. "George's 15 minute oil change" does not requires almost no imagination at all, and is thus considered a weak trademark. Using the term "tiger" for a shipping business or an operating system could be considered an imaginative use, because tigers have nothing to do with either industry or service. It will be a tough fight for both sides. I hope they settle, as I see this case going either way.

As for Mr. Young, he has trademark rights to the term Tiger-Cats, and that's not what Apple calls their operating system. He'd need the rights to just the term Tiger, which is a baseball team in Detroit (among other locations). I'm also not sure if the rights for a baseball team would apply well in this case. While Tiger Direct is not producing operating systems, they are involved with computers and the Internet- a much closer connection to Apple's use.

Stay tuned...