back to article Apple closes book on iPhone-look jotter

Apple has flexed its legal muscles and forced a company selling iPhone-esque notepads to cease trading. The Notepod was a cute scribble-pad with a design based on the iPhone. Until recently, customers could order a set of three for just over a tenner. Unfortunately, the notepad can no longer be shipped after Apple …

COMMENTS

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  1. Wile E. Veteran
    Coat

    Doesn't have to go out of business,

    Change the single button on the bottom to a "Home" key and a "Menu" key and a "Back Arrow" key and a "Search" key. Maybe diddle with the white rectangle size and, Presto! It's now an Android phone, not an iPhone. Hard for Apple to get a "cease and desist" order on that and I would think Google would appreciate the free advertising.

    My coat's the one with the LG Optimus S in the inside pocket.

  2. John Robson Silver badge

    Can he sell them as development aids?

    For iPhone developers to perfect their designs ;)

  3. jai

    14th September 2010?

    So... they have a 10 months backlog on their orders?? Sounds like a cease and desist from Apple is the least of their troubles and provides them with a get out of jail free card as they can point the blame finger and Apple instead of at their own inability to deliver the product.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I bet....

    i bet apple have bought the remaining stock at cost price and will be packing them in apple logo blister packs and selling them for a tenner each !!

  5. martin burns
    Facepalm

    Silly Buggers

    Should have described it as an aid to iPhone developers for prototyping UIs

    And if anyone else wanted to use it as a basic notepad, well you can't stop 'em, can you?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Psion netBook™

    Why does Apple's behaviour not garner the same rantings and ravings as those who so vocally objected to Psion moving to protect their netBook™ trademark, registered a decade before the term began being banded about generically?

    Suing people from producing inspired paper notepads (they didn't carry the Apple logo and couldn't be confused with actual Apple products) or kid who make kits for customers who have already paid Apple a fortune to legitimately own one of their devices, and thus have the legal right to modify it any way they see fit, is just as stupid.

    And in other news, the Pope is still telling Africans not to use condoms...

  7. Brendon

    Eh?

    Why would they want to stop someone virally promoting the latest iToy.

    Admittedly it will take more than a suggestive notepad design for me to ditch my P910, but still, Free Marketing, let them do it,

    1. Arrrggghh-otron

      P910?

      Seriously? You're still rocking a P910! Can you even get batteries for them? Almost makes me want to resurrect the P800 if it wasn't such a brick...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    The title is required, and must contain digits and/or letters .

    WTF? "All orders to 14th September 2010".. How old is this story?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shame on you Mr Jobs!

    People should have the guts to take Apple the bully on. They have great products and I myself am a Mac user but I abhor bullies such as this. It is not what I expect from one entrepreneurs like Jobs ... What harm would it have done for Apple to buy the notepads exclusively from them and resell them at Apple stores. Instead they force a company to go out of business. Shame on you Mr Jobs!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      (¯`·._.·(¯`·._.·(¯`·._.· TITLE ·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)·._.·´¯)

      its not a matter of having the guts, its a matter of having the money to back up the fight....

      your perfectly welcome to market a iphone inspired pad if you like, right up until you get your little cease and desist. letters from the apple lawyers... then YOU take them on... I expect a lot of people will clap you on the back and offer support, but I bet you would be more interested in offers of paying the lawyers bills instead....

  10. Steve Evans

    Pathetic

    Honestly, what harm were they doing? Are Apple planning on making a range of notepads themselves now? No. I didn't think so.

    If anything it was flattery.

    Apple, just grow the f*ck up.

    The company should come back with a Nokia themed one, Nokia need every bit of promotion they can get!

    1. Seanie Ryan
      Mushroom

      protection

      "grow the f*ck up" ???

      why dont you start your own business and produce something that others copy, then you might appreciate the position.

      If they let this slide, then they are effectively saying that their patent application for the design was pointless. If they dont protect it fully, then it opens the gates for others to copy.

      When you get yourself in this position you *might* start to appreciate the need to *have* to protect your IP.

      in fact, for anyone that has a company and DOESNT protect their designs, they are the ones who should "just grow the f*ck up"

  11. Goat Jam
    Facepalm

    If they don't like that

    then I wonder what they think about this idiotic thing;

    http://www.pqi.com.tw/product_image.asp?BIMG=567V-USB%20PORT-600.jpg&sNAME=H567V

    Yes, just what I want, an external hard drive that looks just like a highly nickable fad phone.

    Not.

  12. N13L5

    Apple did buy all the pads

    and gave them to the lawyers on the samsung case...

    Of course, Samsung did steal the design,

    not from Apple though,

    but from LG's Prada

    which easily preceded the iPhone

  13. Lamont Cranston

    This really is beyond pathetic.

    Shame they couldn't just endorse the product and let it continue, as I can't imagine that it was really eating into iPod/hone sales.

  14. Paul Vail
    Joke

    there goes my plans

    to own the feminine hygiene market with my own custom iPads. Does that make it black and white and red (sic) all over?

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