Apple Sued Over iPhone/Apple TV Ads
07.17.07 - 01:43pm
Any company that’s always in the limelight and is making a huge success of there business is also always making a lot of enemies and getting sued constantly.
Apple is no exception and thus another lawsuit has been filed against the legendary company this time for an image used in
iPhone and Apple TV ads, reportedly taken from a Colorado photographer.
In the lawsuit Louis Psihoyos said that Apple uses images of a silhouetted person sitting in a chair surrounded by banks of television screens “nearly identical or substantially similar to the plaintiff’s copyrighted image”.
He says that Apple spoke with him over a licensing deal for the image, but they weren’t able to agree on terms and then Apple used a “nearly identical” image.
“After Apple refused to pay for the authorized use of the copyrighted image, Apple then without justification and in willful and wanton disregard for the rights and feelings of the plaintiff began its campaign of Internet and interstate commerce using the unauthorized image or substantially similar images in its national advertising campaign to market its iPhone and Apple TV products,” Psihoyos said in the lawsuit.
Professor Viva Moffat, teacher of copyright law at Sturm College of Law filed a brief of Psihoyos behalf writing, “The similarities between the protectable elements of Psihoyos’ photograph and the images used in Apple’s ad campaign are striking.”
You can see Psihoyos’s image on his website under portfolio and concepts. They’re definitely one and the same.
Apple, of course has not commented on the lawsuit, but they have done this before for example when they took the iPhone name, when it belonged to Cisco. Apple seems to take what they like and worry about the consequences later and most likely this lawsuit like the others will be quietly settled out of court and never heard from again. Thus the power that comes with playing as one the big boys.
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