Remember the whole legal dust-up over the trademark for the name iPad? Well, now that’s been resolved.
The iPad launch is only a week away and as such, Apple is getting its ducks in a row: accepting submissions for iPad apps to the App Store, making developers use pre-release models in darkened rooms, oh and getting that whole trademark mess cleared up. Yup, as of last week, Apple is the new owner of the name iPad, having purchased the trademark from Fujitsu.
Even before announcing the product, Apple had already filed a request to take the trademark away from its owner Fujitsu. In fact, the two companies have been battling over the mark since last fall, with Apple filing three separate extension requests to challenge the validity of Fujitsu’s ownership.
Fujitsu originally filed for the trademark in March of 2003 but then stopped responding to USPTO requests, seemingly abandoning the mark until it reignited interest in the name in June of 2009. As you can see from the following public record, the mark was transferred to Apple Inc. officially on March 17.
So all that marketing has not been for naught; the iPad is now an official member of the Apple product family.
Tags: apple, fujitsu, ipad, law, trademark
