Prior to the Apple Watch being announced, many were speculating that Apple had a wearable in the works and many had dubbed it the iWatch. Given Apple’s propensity to name their products starting with an “i” i.e. iPhone, iPad, iCloud, iPod, and iTunes, many assumed that the simplistic iWatch could be the final product.
However obviously many were wrong and it seems that the reason why Apple did not go with iWatch was because someone else had apparently trademarked the name. The company that did is called Probendi and they are based in Europe, and recently they have decided to take Apple to court over the name.
It’s odd given that Apple does not actually use the name, but according to the company, they claim that, “Apple has systematically used iWatch wording on Google search engine in order to direct customers to its own website, advertising Apple Watch.” Basically the term iWatch is now so entrenched with the Apple Watch that no one else would think about Probendi’s own product, even though the company has not stated what the iWatch is or what it does, only that they own the trademark.
It should be noted that Probendi isn’t the only company that had plans to protest the iWatch name. Back in 2014, Swatch revealed that they would be fighting Apple for the iWatch trademark should such a device be launched.
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