DailyTech - Luxpro Sues Apple for $100M USD

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Gadgets Luxpro Sues Apple for $100M USD
Gabriel Ikram (Blog) - January 7, 2007 12:29 AM

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18 comment(s) - last by Houdani.. on Jan 8 at 10:38 AM

Luxpro's claim that the Tangent is a significantly different product is backed up by the above image

Taiwanese MP3 player manufacturer Luxpro makes bold claims about the world's largest DAP manufacturer

This article was first published on HWUpgrade.com.

Taiwanese MP3 player manufacturer Luxpro has stated that it plans on suing Apple for $100 million USD. Luxpro was originally sued by Apple on claims that it copied the design of Apple’s iPod Shuffle. Luxpro countered the claims by saying that the prominence of its logo and a series of "easy-to-operate features" were adequate differentiation.

After winning an appeal against Apple, the company now plans to move onto the offensive. In a press release (JPG), the company stated "Luxpro decided to file a US$100-million compensation claim against Apple Computer for its continued and illegitimate provisional disposition motion." Luxpro counsel claims the company lost valuable market opportunities and a large amount of product orders due to Apple's original lawsuit.

Conveniently enough, Luxpro seems to have left out the fact that when the company initially began to market their products, it chose to use the brand name "Supper Shuffle." Shortly after changing the name to "Super Shuffle," the branding strategy was discontinued and Luxpro instead chose the “Tangent” brand name.

As for the "obvious differential" noted by Luxpro counsel between the Apple Shuffle and the Luxpro Tangent ... note the accompanied image and draw your own conclusions.

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Original brand name

By TheLiberal on 1/7/2007 3:58:10 AM , Rating: 5

quote:
Conveniently enough, Luxpro seems to have left out the fact that when the company initially began to market their products, it chose to use the brand name “Supper Shuffle.”

It was called the " Supper Shuffle"? LMAO

RE: Original brand name

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 1/7/2007 4:00:21 AM , Rating: 2

Incredibly ... Yes.

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RE: Original brand name

By krotchy on 1/7/2007 4:05:26 AM , Rating: 2

I think the joke is that it is written as supper (as in dinner) and not Super (as in awesome)

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RE: Original brand name

By qwerty1 on 1/7/2007 4:22:06 AM , Rating: 2

I don't think it was a joke. Some people there are horrible spellers and won't check even once whether the product is correctly labeled before it is marketed.

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RE: Original brand name

By cochy on 1/7/2007 4:35:23 AM , Rating: 2

This is true. I'm amazed these companies can't afford someone to proof read their English.

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RE: Original brand name

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 1/7/2007 5:07:08 AM , Rating: 3

I've dealt with a lot of companies like Luxpro. It's highly unlikely that anyone except a few consultants speaks English.

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RE: Original brand name

By BladeVenom on 1/7/2007 5:53:30 AM , Rating: 2

And some of those consultants can't even actually speak the language. All they do is a word for word dictionary substitution. And some can't even do that right, hence "supper."

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RE: Original brand name

By Rickisan on 1/7/2007 8:16:18 AM , Rating: 2

Yep, the Supper model it is. These kind of things are comical at best (this case) and quite confusing at worst (user manuals). I wonder how I would do writing a user manual in Taiwanese or Chinese. Not so great?

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RE: Original brand name

By hecksign on 1/7/2007 11:16:17 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
it chose to use the brand name " Supper Shuffle." Shortly after changing the name to " Super Shuffle," the branding strategy was discontinued

I don't know about you guys, but I think maybe its the writer's typo.

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RE: Original brand name

By Houdani on 1/8/2007 10:38:32 AM , Rating: 2

No.

They released it as "Supper Shuffle." (HAW haw)
They renamed it "Super Shuffle."
They renamed it again to "Tangent."

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RE: Original brand name

By hoppa on 1/7/2007 12:02:01 PM , Rating: 2

If they win this lawsuit they'll be able to...

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RE: Original brand name

By Egger on 1/7/2007 10:40:44 AM , Rating: 2

On occasion, the situation tends to be that through witty (bear with me) brand naming, many (comparatively) smaller eastern companies avoid the treacherous waters of likeness and copyright laws, especially in Europe. Hence, we have our Sunny, SQNY, Samesung, Pioner and various other equally amusing electronics brands. What isn't so amusing is that they usually sell more than the original brands here in Turkey.

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How did Apple loose that one ?

By Chadder007 on 1/7/2007 9:26:54 AM , Rating: 2

How did Apple loose that case? Its so freaking obvious that they copied the design...they even had Shuffle in the products name for a while.

RE: How did Apple loose that one ?

By masher2

(blog) on 1/7/2007 11:22:59 AM , Rating: 2

You can't patent cosmetic design features. Luxpro didn't infringe upon the Apple trademark. Within the intellectual pantheon, that only leaves copyright protection...which in this case would only apply if the designs were similar enough to cause substantial confusion in the minds of consumers as to whether or not a Luxpro product was actually made by Apple.

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