The smart watch finally appeared at Apple's autumn conference, but it was named Apple Watch. Despite many complaints and dissatisfaction, there are still many consumers who express their love for Apple Watch with words such as "exquisite" and "dazzling".
IMac, iPhone and iPad are all revolutionary products named after the prefix "I" in 16, but on smart watches, Apple did not choose "I".
The naming change from iWatch to Apple Watch may not come from Apple's original intention, but mainly based on trademark considerations.
Trademark registration has become a common practice.
Previously, Apple had to pay $60 million to obtain the iPad trademark in Chinese mainland, but at least outside Chinese mainland, the acquisition of the iPad trademark was successful.
However, the registration of the iWatch trademark has brought great challenges to Apple. Apple has been rumored to develop iWatch for a long time, and many companies have set their sights on the business of robbing Apple's trademark. Before Apple, the trademark rights of iWatch have been registered by other companies in the United States, Britain, parts of Europe and China. Apart from the registration of iWatch in Japan, Mexico, Russian Federation, Taiwan Province Province of China, Turkey and other countries and regions, the trademark rights of Apple in other major countries have yet to be resolved.
The owner of the iWatch trademark in the United States is a California company called OMG Electronics. In the UK, a network service company named Probendi has been the owner of the iWatch trademark since 2008. In China, at least nine companies claim patents, although most of them have expired. In addition, another company holds the iWatching trademark.
According to statistics, most of Apple's trademark applications for iWatch in the above-mentioned countries were rejected, and a few of them were raised with trademark objections.
Apple's registration of the iWatch trademark has also been resisted by traditional watch manufacturers.
In May of this year, Swatch, a Swiss watch manufacturer, tried to stop Apple from using the "iWatch" trademark. Nick, CEO of swatch? Nick Hayek said that iWatch is too similar to Swatch's brand of iSwatch. Swatch has registered the trademark of "iWatch" in some countries, and the watch sold by Swatch is called "iSwatch". Heyek believes that because the names of the two brands are too similar, Apple may damage the iSwatch brand.
Being blocked in trademark application has forced Apple to find another way.
Apple TV was forced to change its name
In fact, it's not the first time that Apple has had trouble with trademarks. Eight years ago, Apple TV also experienced a name change.
Apple TV made its debut at the press conference in San Francisco on September 2, 2006, when it was called iTV. The name "Apple TV" was not mentioned at the conference, but its development code name "iTV" was mentioned.
When the product was officially launched, Apple renamed it Apple TV, and did not disclose the reason for the renaming. Industry speculation mainly considers trademark rights.
1998, Jobs, who had just returned to Apple, named the iMac with the prefix "I" for the first time. In the past ten years, Apple has released many products named after "I", such as iTunes, iWork, iPhone and iCloud.
In 20 14 years, Apple's smart watches did not follow the tradition of naming after "I", which should be an expedient measure made by Apple in the face of possible trademark disputes. Some analysts said that Apple Watch will end Apple's traditional naming method, but I believe that Apple will not give up easily, and the "I" series product names will continue.