Apple trade marks 'There's an app for that'
Apple has managed to get a US trade mark on "There's an app for that", at least with reference to retailing of applications for use on electronic devices. The phrase does feature prominently in Apple's advertising, and already has a life of its own as a joke punchline and editor's easy headline option, but now anyone using it …
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More work for Apple lawyers ...
Since it's already the butt of jokes it's practically in common parlance.
I shall respect their trade mark as much as Apple respects others IP it has stolen over the years. Besides, they have a lot more registering to do to make it really effective.
trade marks
Want to trade mark bollocks? There's an app for that!
Oh no!
I'll have to add the syllables 'li-ca-tion' to avoid falling foul of the lawyers now!
"anyone using it will need to recognise Apple's ownership"
Really? Can you infringe the mark if you're not in the same business, or not in business at all?
I know some people feel the need to "acknowledge" trademarks by writing something along the lines of "All Xs are Y-ed by their respective Y-ers", but no one has ever explained to me what bad things might happen were one not to recite that tautology.
I for one...
Welcome our new overlords, with their ability to provide an app for anything - even things that don't need an app (I'm thinking of fart apps here), and of course things thats are better off un-app'd (such as wobbly pixcels).
ttfn
heh heh
i agree where are the porn apps ???
THERES NO APP FOR THAT :D
*clenched fist .... Yeah well think about it :D
Their ability to provide an app for anything
"Their ability to provide an app for anything" - except for that thing that teenage boys spend approximately 25% of their waking hours either doing, thinking about doing (often with the aid of a naughty magazine).
Still, there's plenty of apps for that on Android.
need to make up an 'There's an App for that' Joke?
There's an app for that.
So can I have....
..."WHAT A FREAKING CROCK!"?
How about I trademark, "THERE BE 'N APP FOR THAT, THERE BE", for the rustic dwellers amongst us?
civil disobedience
If everyone simply uses it in every possible way (on-line, in print, etc) then can Apple simply be overwhelmed by the imposssibility of squashing us all?
If it used 'Good morning, lvoely day' in an advert, it could trademark this and hold every writer and indeed every human to ransom?
Where will the madness end? Etc.
Prior Art
a phrase commonly used in RISC OS.
All fun and games, until some one loses an "i"
Time to take apple by the horns and file one down a bit
How can the USPTO continue to be so stupid as to grant patents and trade marks for prior art? They are taking money. But, if there is prior art, then it's time to fight this trade mark awarding. I am looking for prior art, but it seesm hard to find the wording. I wonder whether apple paid google to suppress or hide the returns. I bet slashodotters would know for certain....
There's some crap for that...
oh sh1t...
ok, can I say "There's an ointment for that?"
(Mine's the coat with a tube of Preparation H in the pocket.)
Wait lol
What they really say at apple.
There a patent for that
There is an ap for that
Just change the spelling a bit.
They'll probably trademark wearing a black turtle-neck while looking ill next.
Hard to enforce
I think commercials for competing products is the only place where they can hope to enforce this trademark.
Everyone else can just sit back and relax.
There is NO app for that-
Title
""What a crock" - Said the crocodile at an alligator rally"
Need an IP stealing, copyright law abusing...
Skeletor lookalike control freak?
"There's an ass for that"™
Worse than PC
US Trade Mark and Patent rulings are getting stupider and more invasive than the PC crap we have to suffer. How on earth can a sentence become a trade mark?
Anyway all I am about to seek approval for.
“I have an App for that”
“An App for that we have”
“We have an App for that” etc. etc.
Erm....
Marketing slogans have been trademarkable for decades. Check out McDonald's for trademarks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_McDonald's_trademarks
Surprisingly 'Do you want fries with that?' isn't in the list.
Acorn there first, as usual
Yup, RISC OS users have been using "Apps" for rather longer than the iPhone has existed. Screenshot from RISC OS 3 on the A5000:
http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/desktop/empty/riscos311.png
So, yes, there's been an App for that since 1991.
The Macintosh was first released in 1984...
and software was referred to as an application, or an 'app'. A collection was referred to as 'apps'. In fact I'm certain that Apple have always used that nomenclature.
Application
Sorry, but the use of the word application predates Apple's use of it. Originally it came with words like "program" or "software" after it, then people started to use the word on it's own. I was aware of it being shortened to "app" by tech geeks when I first started to study computers in the early eighties and I'm sure I wasn't at the leading edge.
RE: Application
Thanks for kind of corroborating what I was saying. FTR, I wasn't trying to suggest that Apple invented the term, but can appreciate that my post could be interpreted that way! I was trying to illustrate to the numpty that thought Acorn 'invented' the term application, that this wasn't the case and Apple actually has a precedent that pre-dates iOS.
There's an answer to that.
As has been mentioned:
There's an application for that
There is an app for that
There be an app for that
We've an app for that
We've got a nack for that
Jobs is a twat for that
...
There's a trademark for that
That is until any halfway competent lawyer defends someone for using it, when it'll be blown out of the water (as is the case with many/most US trademarks and patents). The real use for it is for Apple to write threatening letters to anyone who's taking the mickey out of them, hoping to bully them into ceasing and desisting.
There are so many providers offering similar products with similar distribution means, and 'app' is so common an truncation of 'application', that any judge who allowed Apple to have exclusive control of it should be thrown out of office.
I need an application so I can watch Flash video on my iPhone...
"There's an app for that..."
Err, no there isn't.
Does that mean we can sue Apple for being misleading in their advertising?
So?
I've certainly not come across anybody else trading on that phrase. So hopefully that's cost Apple a fortune in legal fees for absolutely no return. What a set of twats.
What if...
...I use "There is an application for that" ??
How about....
Was thinking of trademarking, "Download a Linux distro, keep little Stevie Jobs and his good mate Stevie Ballmer out of your hair and not pay either a dime."
Bit wordy, but I am working on it.
Is it true that...
... Apple's lawyers are working on trademarking all the words in the dictionary, plus every phrase or sentence consisting of 2,3 ... n words?
Coz I'm concerned of retribution from fruit.
So, is this OK to use?
"There's an Apple Twat For That"?
Has....
Has El Reg trademarked "Biting the hand that feeds iT?".
Excuse me, I'm off to the trademark office.
I'm Not Sure Which Is Worse...
...the multi-billion dollar corporations which seek to co-opt everyday language with trademark entanglements, or the governments which sanction such nonsense by granting them the legal authority to do so.
Either way, you can rest assured that your interests as the common man will come in a distant third every time in this jolly little cluster*bleep*.
Every time
there's an article in the Reg about trademarks, a number of silly people seem to believe that non-commercial & personal use of said mark will somehow be actionable. Or gibber about patents, when the article makes no mention of them.
Mind you, on a US website today I saw someone seriously explain the appearance of "(sic)" after a quoted mis-spelt trademark as "This means Standard Industrial Code" - so there's no limit to the silliness.
Its all Nu LibCon's (copyright some dickhead) fault I tell 'ee - I had that Gordon Cameron in the back of my cab once
JUST A LOT OF USA NON SENSE!
There's an app for that,
BUT THERE IS NO APPLE IN IT,
JUST LIKE THERE IS NO PHONE IN APPLE
NOR an I in phone
Title here...
"There's a 'program that gives a computer instructions that provide the user with tools to accomplish a task' for that!"
not new
Love that all of you missed that this was filed A YEAR AGO...
Apple didn't file this to capitalize on some marketing hype, they filed this before marketing the phrase the first time. Given the negative attention the phrase is used in now, this is an added bonus that now their competitors can't use it in their own advertising (which Verizon already did).
um....
they recently filed for the lower case version to be copyrighted.
Pure lower case and pure upper case...
... Surely that means mixed-case versions aren't trade-marked!
How do we avoid using trademarks?
These trademarks are plain English, and there's no telling how many there are, and are being added every week. We need some way to search an online always-updated database. If only there were an app for that...
I respect
Newton, Leibniz, Cauchy and Riemann amongst others.
So who the fsck is Jobs?
Oh that's right he's the guy who demands respect by his utilisation of the US patent system.
Well have these apples, it's the steam from my latest turd.
Why the fuss?
Why all the fuss?
A company has trademarked an advertising slogan. This is worth a second glance.
As far as I'm aware no other company has a slogan close enough to this to be a problem, and it's use in comedy routines and attack ads is protected by fair use clauses (Parody, and so on).
This is a normal business decision that happens a million times a year in the US. It's not a big deal. You trademark your slogan just like you trademark your logo, copyright your content, and patent your hardware.
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