[JURIST] Apple could face legal problems in registering a trademark for its new iPad tablet computer product announced on Wednesday. Since 2003, the computing company Fujitsu has been attempting to register the “IPAD” mark in the US for a wireless retail computing device. Apple, however recently filed for an extension to allow itself sufficient time to prepare an opposition to Fujitsu’s registration of the mark. It may be possible for both companies to register the mark, as long as Apple can successfully argue that there would not be any likelihood of confusion between its personal tablet and Fujitsu’s retail device.
Apple’s potential dispute over trademark rights with Fujitsu is the latest example of Apple’s intellectual property issues. In October, Nokia sued Apple alleging that the iPhone contains technology that infringes 10 Nokia patents. In April, Apple was found to have infringed a predictive snooping patent owned by Opti. Inc. In July 2008, the inventor of so-called “visual voicemail” settled a patent infringement case with Apple over the company’s use of that function in the iPhone.