Tiger Direct Sues Apple
Originally posted 2005-04-29 04:59:07
Unbelievable. Tiger Direct has sued Apple for trademark infringement. The issue? The new version of Mac OS X, dubbed Tiger, has flooded the Internet with techie \”Tiger\” references, bumping Tiger Direct down the list in search engine results. The flagrant timing of the lawsuit, one day before the new Mac OS’s release, marks this as a publicity stunt or an attempt at a cash grab. I wonder what implications this lawsuit holds for search engine manipulation, though. If Alabama’s football team becomes good again, and sparks thousands of armchair quarterbacks to pen insightful and noteworthy online articles about them, will Proctor and Gamble sue? Talk about a slippery, or at least sudsy, slope.
Like any selfish American (or is it selfish man?), I worry more, of course, about the lawsuit effects on me. My wife leaves this afternoon to go out of town for the weekend, and I’d been gearing myself up to take my five children to the local CompUSA for the Tiger release party at 6:00. Obsessive? Maybe. But a little trip will give us something to do, and I may win an iPod. I worried that this lawsuit threatened to nix our family outing, until I read that the preliminary injunction hearing won’t take place until next Tuesday. So much for your timing, Tiger Direct!