Apple's future won't be brought to you by the letter 'i'
JULIAN LEE AND ASHER MOSES
March 12, 2010 , Sydney Morning Herald

Apple has been dealt a severe blow having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter "i" as part of the name for its products.
A trademarks tribunal has knocked back Apple's bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products.
Apple argued that the DOPi name - which is iPod spelt backwards - was too similar to its own popular portable music player, which has sold in excess of 100 million units worldwide.
Apple has long since relied on its legal muscle to pursue any individual or company it sees as infringing on its copyright and trademarks.

But its ambitions to make widespread claims on the letter "i" came to a grinding halt when the tribunal rejected Apple's claim that punters might be confused into thinking that they were buying an Apple product.
While the case does not affect Apple's current trademarks, companies wanting to use the "i" prefix will have a better chance of getting away with it, lawyers say.
It is just the latest in a string of David and Goliath battles. In the one corner is Apple with a market capitalisation of close to $US200 billion, making it the fourth largest publicly traded American company, and, in the other, is Wholesale Central, based in Sydney's western suburbs that, in the six months to the end of June 2007, had sales of $71,000.

In the tribunal hearing, IP Australia, the government body that oversees trademark applications, said Apple overlooked the fact that there were already a large number of products that have the "i" prefix, for example iSkin and iSoft to name just two, all of which are operating in the same class of electronic goods as Apple.
The full story can be read online at SMH.