The Federal Court in Florida has denied a request for an injunction by computer retailer TigerDirect in their lawsuit against Apple over the name for their latest version of OS X, “Tiger”.
It seems that, like Aunty, the court believes that TigerDirect’s claims about the tiger in their tank is more of a tempest in a teapot.
TigerDirect’s claim, embodied in a lawsuit which was filed just hours before Apple’s Tiger OS X went on sale to the public, was that by using the term “tiger” in the name of the new version of their popular Mac operating system, Apple was likely to cause confusion in the minds of the consumer public, and somehow lead the public who was looking for TigerDirect to Apple instead.
Uh huh.
Tidbits which the court found compelling included a survey that revealed that “only 6% of consumers associated the name “Tiger” with TigerDirect. Meanwhile, the survey of 517 people showed that only 4 people associated the name “Tiger” with a company,” and that “over 200 federal registrations of marks containing the term “Tiger” — including 24 companies, other than TigerDirect, which employ Tiger marks to promote computer products and services.”
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In the end the court denied TigerDirect’s request for an injunction (although the lawsuit will still go forward), opining that “any given customer who cross-shops TigerDirect and Apple, whether over the internet or in person at their retail local stores, will be able to distinguish their respective retail outlets due to the distinctive differences in their marketplaces’ appearance and messages.”
Perhaps now would be a good time for TigerDirect to slink away with their tail tucked firmly between their legs.
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