SOURCE

Apple objects to Japanese ‘gPod’ trademark for women’s sex aid

"Ichiro Kameda, the president of a tiny, two-man company in Osaka, is currently embroiled in a bitter battle with computer maker Apple," Ryann Connell reports for WaiWai via The Mainichi Daily News.

"'Putting it simply, the fight is all over what I call our beat generator. There's a small device with three different, sound-activated motors. It's a revolutionary invention. You can plug it in to iPods or mobile phones. It can also be programmed to operate only for certain voices,' Kameda says, referring to his company's product," Connell reports.

Connell reports, "Kameda's commercial pride and joy is actually a women's sex aid worn inside her most intimate orifices and buzzing her with good vibrations when set off by sound."

"Though the Japanese Patent Agency gave him the right to use the devise in August last year, and the trademark he chose for the product was approved two months later, he still hasn't been able to sell. The problem? He called the product the gPod, presumably after the G-Spot and jii, the Japanese word for masturbation," Connell reports.

Connell reports, "When Kameda applied across the globe to have the gPod registered as a trademark, the computer giant raised objections, saying it was too close a resemblance to its hit iPod (it probably doesn't help that the gPod even looks like an iPod.) The fight really intensified earlier this year."

"'This Japanese lawyer rolled up on my doorstep one day, saying he represented Apple and carrying a letter asking me to change the product name,' Kameda tells Shukan Gendai," Connell reports. "Apple legal representatives have repeatedly contacted Kameda, requesting he stop using the gPod trademark, including in one letter with extracts that read: The product planned for use with the trademark 'gPod' is a sex aid and masturbation aid. If this product comes onto the market, you will be forced to take all sorts of legal measures to deal with it. We would like to avoid a fight over this and would be prepared to cover any costs you have incurred."

Connell reports, "Kameda laughs at the reaction. 'What they were telling me was that they'd pay if I agreed to stop using the trademark. Of course I turned them down. If they sue me, I'll fight,' he says. Apple Computer Inc., meanwhile, is, unlike gPod users, keeping tight-lipped about the case."

And another one:

SOURCE

Apple a-quiver over iPod vibrator copyright clash

Apple has set the lawyers on the makers of the iBuzz iPod-driven vibrator. The company claims the UK website established to promote the stimulatory accessory violates its copyright.

Specifically, what LoveLabs describes as an "animation showing silhouettes of girls diddling themselves silly" is, in the words of Apple legal enforcer Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP "may have been copied or substantially copied from those in which our client own the copyright, without our client's consent..."

How many "diddling" images, we wonder, does Apple own?

Except, according to LoveLabs, it doesn't. The firm has even added a little sequence of images on its website presenting how its silhouettes were created. Being a family show, we can't reproduce the shots here, but you can get an eyeful at ibuzz.co.uk.

That said, Apple's silhouette imagery is well established as the way it markets the iPod, and while the company might have a tough time showing copyright infringement, it might be more successful by claiming LoveHoney is passing off its product as one of Apple's own.

But it shouldn't come to that. LoveLabs revealed it's in the process redesigning its website in any case, and the new look will feature a "spangly new animation for iBuzz Two that we're going to use instead".

Interestingly, Apple has targeted other producers of iPod-related sex toys. The Mac maker last month formally objected to a Japanese inventor's attempt to trademark the name of his masturbatory aid, gPod. That, Apple alleged, is too close to iPod.