Big companies are no stranger to lawsuits, including Apple. While many times the lawsuits were just created by patent trolls, another lawsuit that hit Apple's iPhone X is far from that.
The Cupertino-based company has introduced iPhone X, a generation of iPhone which celebrates iPhone's 10th birthday. With an almost no bezels, the iPhone X features Face ID, something that Apple hopes would be a game changer.
One of the uses, besides unlocking the device, is to use a feature called "Animoji."
A Japanese company however, already owns the trademark for "Animoji" in the U.S.. The Tokyo-based company, Emonster, filed a suit, suing Apple for using the word to name its iPhone X feature.
On Wednesday, October 18th, 2017, the company said at the U.S. federal court: "Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself."
Emonster's Animoji is already on Apple's App Store since 2014. Emonster's Animoji allows users to send emoji that are animated in a loop like GIFs. Costing $0.99 on iTunes, the app asks users to compose the message kind of like how you would format a line of code with parentheses and brackets that separate the kinds of effects people want to add to text or emoji.
On the other hand, iPhone X's Animoji feature, lets users transform their face into customized moving emoji, taking advantage of Apple's Face ID face recognition technology.
The lawsuit alleges that because both the Animoji app and the iPhone X feature are on Apple’s platforms, and because they both involve moving animation, the court should rule one out.
According to the suit, Apple knew about Emonster's ownership of the Animoji trademark because the app is in the Apple Store. Apple has offered to buy the trademark, but Emonster turned the offer down. Instead of a rebrand, Apple continued and kept that name anyway.
Although Emonster has owned the trademark for Animoji since 2015, Apple filed a petition in September 2017 to cancel the trademark, so the registration is now under review. Apple said that because of a filing error, Emonster registered the trademark to a nonexistent business and therefore can't actually own “animoji.”
On its App Store, Apple has already blocked "Animoji" search from Emonster, and instead directing users to iPhone X.
"This is a textbook case of willful, deliberate trademark infringement. With full awareness of plaintiffs' Animoji mark, Apple decided to take the name and pretend to the world that 'Animoji' was original to Apple," said Emonster owner Enrique Bonansea said in the complaint.
Emonster is seeking an unnamed amount of money in damages and a court order to immediately block Apple from continuing to use the name.