| Apple Computer Inc - Wikipedia (part 4) | 08/06/2005 - 21:55:25 |
Apple as a corporationLogoThe famous Apple logo was designed by Rob Janoff in 1976 and took the form of a multi-colored rainbow Apple with a 'bite' taken out of it. [3] (http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,60597,00.html) It has stayed the same since then albeit with changes to the color scheme in various forms. Trademark dispute with Apple CorpsIn 1978 Apple Corps, i.e. The Beatles filed suit against Apple Computer for trademark infringement. The suit settled in 1981 with an undisclosed amount being paid to Apple Corps. This amount has been estimated to $50–$200 million, but was later revealed to be $80,000. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer agreed to stay out of the music business. In 1986 Apple added MIDI and audio-recording capabilities to its computers, and in 1989 Apple Corps sued again, claiming violation of the 1981 settlement agreement. In 1991 another settlement of around $26.5 million was reached. At this time, an Apple employee named Jim Reekes added a sampled system sound called xylophone to the Macintosh operating system, but Apple's legal department objected citing the agreement with Apple Corps. Reekes renamed the sound to sosumi, which he asserted was Japanese and meant nothing musical, but in fact can be read phonetically as "So, sue me". The 1991 settlement outlines the rights each company has to the Apple trademark. While Apple Corps was given the right to use the name on any "creative works whose principal content is music", Apple Computer was given the right to use the name on "goods or services...used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such content," but not on content distributed on physical media. [4] (http://news.com.com/Apple+vs.+Apple+Perfect+harmony/2100-1027_3-5378401.html) In other words, Apple Computer agreed that it would not package, sell or distribute physical music materials. In September 2003 Apple Computer was sued by Apple Corps again, this time for introducing iTunes and the iPod which Apple Corps believed was a violation of the previous agreement by Apple not to distribute music. Some observers believe the wording of the previous settlement favors Apple Computer in this case. [5] (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2004/tc20040930_9317_tc056.htm) Other observers speculate that Apple Computer may be forced to offer a much larger settlement this time which may even result in Apple Corps becoming a major shareholder in Apple Computers or, perhaps may result in Apple Computer splitting the iPod and related business into a separate firm. [6] (http://www.legalzoom.com/articles/article_content/article11325.html) As of April 2005 this suit has not yet been resolved. Trademark dispute with Abdul TrayaIn July 1998 Abdul Traya and Stan Berg registered the domain name www.appleimac.com, two months after Apple announced the iMac, in an attempt to draw attention to the web-hosting business they were running out of their parents basement. A note on their site stated that their plan was to "generate traffic to our servers and try to put the domain to sale. [sic]" [7] (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-221921.html) After a legal dispute that lasted until April 1999, Traya and Apple settled out of court with Apple paying legal fees and giving Traya a "token payment" in exchange for the domain name. [8] (http://www.macobserver.com/news/99/april/990427/applevsteen.html) Defamation dispute with Carl SaganIn 1994 Apple was sued by Carl Sagan for using his name as the internal code-name for the Power Macintosh 7100. Sagan lost the suit twice. See the Carl Sagan article for details. Trademark dispute with Benjamin CohenIn November 2000, Benjamin Cohen of CyberBritain (http://www.cyberbritain.co.uk) registered the domain name, itunes.co.uk for an mp3 search engine; his first choice, "tunes.co.uk" was taken. Apple was granted a UK restricted (non music) trademark for ITUNES on March 23 2001, and launched its popular iTunes music store service in the UK in 2004. Apple and CyberBritain are now in a dispute over the rights to the name. The story was broken by The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/06/apple_itunescouk_domain_dispute/) on the December 6 2004. For a short period of time, the domain redirected to iTunes biggest rival, Napster. The domain name now forwards to CyberBritain's cash back/rewards website QuickQuid.com (http://www.QuickQuid.com). In March 2005, .uk domain registar Nominet UK ruled in Apple's favor in the dispute citing that Cohen had made an "abusive registration," causing many bloggers and small businesses to complain that Nominet was unfairly supporting large corporations. Cohen has stated that he will appeal the case to Britain's High Court. Apple takes on bloggersIn November 2004, three popular online blogs about Apple rumors released information about two unreleased Apple products, the Mac mini and an as of yet unreleased product codenamed Asteroid, also known as Project Q97. Apple Insider, Power Page, and Think Secret were all brought into the suit under the grounds that they published trade secrets. The suit has brought up the current status of bloggers, and whether they hold the same protection that journalists do. In February 2005 it was decided by a court official in California that the bloggers do not have the same shield laws as journalists. They were forced to give up their sources, leading to multiple other lawsuits. In a related case, all three websites have gone on to fight the journalistic status decision, and are also in the process of settling with Apple Computers. DiversityApple received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002 related to its policies on LGBT employees. They have maintained this rating in 2003 and 2004. However, it has been criticized for discriminating against African-Americans.[9] (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48154,00.html) In November 2001, a former product design engineer filed a lawsuit in California alleging racial discrimination in that he was refused promotions and perks, isolated from other staff and dismissed unreasonably. He further alleged he was paid less than white counterparts. The company was also sued for sexual discrimination, although the case was dismissed after opening statements.[10] (http://www.orrick.com/practices/employment/discrimination.asp) In 2000, Jesse Jackson singled out Apple as a "negative example" of racial tolerance due to its failure to appoint African Americans or Latinos to the board. [11] (http://www.lowendmac.com/musings/racism.shtml) Apple has still not made such an appointment. CriticismApple has been criticised for their vertically integrated business model, which runs against the grain of much of the 'received wisdom' of economists, particularly for the computer industry. However, the company is profitable. Other criticisms have included that it has been very personality driven, especially in the two different eras of Steve Jobs' tenure; some even regard it as being a cult, or at least having cult-like features. Jobs' infamous reality distortion field is often cited as a criticism. From a technical standpoint, Apple has also been criticised for having a closed and proprietary architecture with the original Macintosh, and a "not invented here" syndrome against adopting open standards. However, that trend has been largely reversed with Mac OS X, and the company now has an official policy of adopting open industry standards where they exist. Apple has now used industry standard hardware technologies for many years, which has helped to lower prices significantly. Many Apple technologies have become industry standards where no former standard existed, e.g. ZeroConf network configuration, FireWire, etc. Other technologies, invented elsewhere, only gained wide industry acceptance after Apple adopted them, including 3-1/2 inch floppy disks, SCSI, USB, Wi-Fi and, of course, graphical user interfaces. Mac OS X itself is now based on an open source kernel and core operating system called Darwin. Apple also uses an open source HTML rendering engine in its Safari web browser. Some third-party developers are also critical of the competing factions within Apple themselves, illustrated by the perception of an ongoing rivalry between the developers of Cocoa, which came from NeXT, and those of Carbon, which came from Apple. This rivalry is seen as counterproductive and unnecessary by many developers. Apple's retail initiative has had a mixed reception. They have been considered a success in raising awareness of the Apple brand. Retailers have suggested that the Apple-owned retail stores have preferential treatment when receiving Apple hardware, and therefore receive limited stock product earlier, and at lower prices - an accusation that has been officially denied by Apple. Apple CEOs, 1977-present
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