Apple has been sued in federal court by publisher John T. Colby, which is claiming trademark infringement over the use of the term “iBooks.” Bloomberg reports that Colby purchased the assets of various entities owned by New York publisher Byron Preiss, who had published more than 1,000 books under the “ibooks” name, beginning in 1999.
Apple has a trademark on the term “IBOOK” as it relates to computers and once sold a laptop called the iBook, which was replaced by the MacBook when the company switched to Intel processors. The lawsuit argues that Apple never used the term as a designation for electronic books or an application for the delivery of electronic books until it launched the iPad.
“Apple’s use of the mark ‘iBooks’ to denote the electronic library that can be accessed via its iPad tablet computer and its iPhone is likely to overwhelm the good will of plaintiffs’ ‘ibooks’ and ‘ipicturebooks’ marks and render them virtually worthless,” the lawsuit says.
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