Apple faces competition for iWatch trademark in Europe

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Following revelations that Apple might have a trademark battle on its hands at home, it now seems it will also face competition in Europe for the ?iWatch? trademark it has already filed for in?Japan,?Taiwan and Mexico, because other companies have already registered the name in relevant trademark categories.

Among them is Probendi, an Italian company that is also incorporated in the US. In February 2009, Probendi?registered?the European trademark for iWatch with OHIM, the European Union agency responsible for registering trademarks and designs that are valid in all 28 countries of the EU.

Probendi owns the word mark for ?iWatch? and uses it for a mobile phone application that sends real-time audio, video and location data to an online emergency and security support system that can be used by emergency services, according to?a brochure?about the product. Daniele Di Salvo, Probendi?s director, could not immediately comment on Friday on Apple?s trademark filings.

That Probendi owns the word mark in the EU doesn?t mean that Apple cannot apply for a European ?iWatch? trademark, said Margarita Garcia of OHIM?s information centre. ?We are an administrative institution, we do not refuse applications,? she said. ?We cannot be a party in these battles.?

According to an online description of OHIM?s procedures, it is up to registrants to defend their trademarks, and for new applicants to demonstrate that already-registered trademarks are not being used.

The owner of a trademark has the obligation to ensure it is used and has to check if others in the same market are using the trademark, Garcia said. When an application is filed for the same class of product, OHIM will send a letter to the trademark owner notifying that a similar trademark has been filed, after which the owner can file an opposition which will be reviewed by OHIM, she added.

In Probendi?s case, the trademark is in class 9, which covers apparatus, instruments and media for recording, reproducing, carrying, storing, processing, manipulating, transmitting, broadcasting, retrieving and reproducing music, sounds, images, text, signals, software, information, data and code. It also covers software, instruments and apparatus for the location and navigation of vehicles and personnel, computer application software for mobile phones.

Whether an opposition succeeds depends on the arguments filed, Garcia said. ?It is never easy, it is never black and white,? adding that anyone can oppose a trademark application within three months after it is published.

Probendi is not the only company in Europe staking a claim on the iWatch name, though. AIO Distribution, a company from the UK, also?filed?for a European registration of the trademark in December 2012. In this case, AIO tried to register ?iwatch?, with a lower case w, in class 9 and also class 38, which covers mobile phones and communications by mobile phones.

AIO?s trademark claim hasn?t been registered yet, and its application was opposed by the Vlaamse Media Maatschappij (Flemish Media Company, VMM), according to OHIM?s records.

VMM has an online portal,?iwatch.be, where content from the Flemish television channel VTM can be watched for a fee. The company has registered the ?iWatch? trademark?in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to the records of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), which covers the three countries.

A VMM spokeswoman reached on Friday declined to comment on Apple?s trademark filings in other countries and wouldn?t discuss the opposition of AIO?s filing at the OHIM. The company doesn?t discuss its strategies, she said.

AIO Distribution could not be reached for comment.

There is another iWatch trademark holder on record at the BOIP too. A private person from the Netherlands, Otto F Weise, registered ?iWatch?, ?iWatch Phone? and ?iWatch Connect? in different categories according to BOIP records.

The trademark iWatch is registered in a category covering jewellery, while iWatch Phone and iWatch Connect are registered in a category that, among others, covers cash registers, calculating machines and data processing equipment.

The situation is much the same in the UK, where Probendi owns the trademark (because it has an EU trademark), records at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) show. In the UK, an application for ?i_watch? from Turkey in the jewellery category is?also pending.

In Germany, a visual iwatch trademark is?registered?by Matrix Security, records of the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) showed. And in June, a Vanessa Hansen,?applied?for the German word mark ?iWatch?.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

by Loek Essers, IDG News Service

Source: http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-faces-competition-for-iwatch-trademark-in-europe-101358/

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