SlashGear Japan
As you know our man Vincent attended D5: All Things Digital yesterday. He had a blast, and not only did he get to watch Steve Jobs on stage, but he also was able to meet him and shake his hand. However his meeting didn’t quite go as planned.
You probably know that Vincent also runs our sister-site MYiPhone. When he mentioned this to Jobs, he was kindly informed that he should change the name of the site to something that didn’t contain the iPhone name, citing that “we have a team of lawyers to go after that kind of stuff.” This of course took Vincent very much by surprise.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for Steve Jobs, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. Perhaps he was trying to do Vincent a favor by telling him that their legal teams love to go after any sites that use one of their trademarks, not that he personally thought that it was wrong to use the iPhone name.
What is interesting is that Apple doesn’t actually own the iPhone trademark, so we’re not really sure how much legal action they can actually take against us. That’s not the point though, what is upsetting is that they would consider shutting down a site that is in essence, doing them a favor by informing the world about everything related to the iPhone. We don’t want a medal or anything for doing it, we’re excited about the iPhone just like many other people. We just want to share our passion with everyone else without changing our name.
We know that Apple has shut other sites down for these same reasons, but what purpose does it serve? Why should we have to chose obscure names just to appease the companies that we’re discussing? I’m curious how the rest of the blogging community feels about this?
Legal handshake with Steve Jobs: Apple lawyers will go after “my iPhone” name [via MYiPhone]
7 Responses to “Steve Jobs informs MY iPhone they they are in need of a name change”
Electro^Plaknton May 31, 2007
It’s simple; protection of identity. Anytime you let someone or something else use your trademark, it has the potential to confuse customers. For a company like Apple, they want to control their user experience therefor any site using their trademark has to follow their brand and marketing initiatives.
The question you should ask yourself is, “will it affect the content and quality of that content if I change the name?” If the answer is no, save yourself any potential trouble and change it. You can still cheer or jeer the iPhone so in no way are you compromising your ideals or vision.
On a side note, don’t be offended. It’s business as usual. Use the opportunity to come up with a fun name that maybe jokes about trademark infringement like, “the phone who’s name need not be mentioned”. Okay that’s way too long but you get the idea.
+3William Gates May 31, 2007
Steve’s an ass pirate.
NeutralTy May 31, 2007
I know of many other companies that do that too you cannot use there name as they thing supposidly it may mislead customers or something like, which is kinda stupid in some ways but oh well. Sorry to hear about that… Sucks big time…
-3Kurtis May 31, 2007
It’s simple, trademark. It’s not a matter of whether you’re helping them or not, they have to take legal action in order to retain their trademark. That’s just the way it works.
Neutralbarnacle999 May 31, 2007
Yeah, just change the name. It’s the world we live in, there are rules.
-2Mohammad Ali June 1, 2007
wow….that really sucks…..Lame…..
-1iPhone June 3, 2007
Change the name “iPHone”??? is this a bad joke?
Neutral