According to Beijing time101October 20th, a Japanese company filed a lawsuit against Apple on Wednesday, accusing it of infringing an American trademark involving "Animoji". Animoji is Apple's dynamic expression function, which is used to promote a new facial recognition function launched by iPhone X.

The plaintiff in this case is Enrique Bonansea, an American living in Japan. He owns a Tokyo software development company named Emonster k.k Bonnasse, and he filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Bonasse said that he applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office for the trademark "Animoji" in 20 14, and was approved in 20 15. Bonnasse has been using the name Animoji for a messaging application on the App Store since 20 14.

He said in the lawsuit that Apple already knew the existence of the Animoji application and tried to buy the Animoji trademark before the release of iPhone X, but it was rejected. "This is a typical case of intentional infringement of trademark rights. Fully aware that the plaintiff owns the trademark right of Animoji, Apple decided to steal the name and pretend that' Animoji' was originally created by Apple. Apple has long known that the plaintiff used the Animoji trademark on an information product, and it can be downloaded from Apple's own app store, "said Bonnasse, a lawyer.

The plaintiff's Animoji application

The download volume of Animoji application in Bonnasse has exceeded1.8000 times, and it can still be downloaded from the App Store. This application allows users to send animated text to their friends.

Bonnasse said that in the summer of 20 17, just before the release of iPhone X, companies including Emoji Law Group contacted him and wanted to buy his Animoji trademark. He thinks these companies are directed by Apple. He decided not to sell the trademark, but was threatened that it might be revoked. Sure enough, in September this year, 1 1, Apple filed a request with the US Patent and Trademark Office to revoke Animoji's trademark.

According to the lawsuit, he originally planned to update the Animoji application at the end of this year, but he had to release the new application in advance, lest Apple further confuse the ownership of the Animoji trademark and make the public mistakenly think that the trademark belongs to Apple.

Bonnasse applied to the court for a pre-injunction and a permanent injunction to prevent Apple from using the name Animoji, and to compensate for the losses and legal fees.

Apple has had a lot of things recently.