Buy The Prius Computer!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prianista @ Jul 7 2006, 12:23 PM) [snapback]282559[/snapback]</div>

At best "Prius" is trademarked, the computer is a PriusOne. And since prius is simply a latin word, I don't think there would be any violation, although I'm sure the lawyers will battle it out for years and make themselves a ton of money.

Look at Apple records and Apple computers and all the mess that has brought on.

 

Basically, as long as neither company gets into the same business as the other, then there's no case. If Toyota stays out of the computer market and PriusOne stays out of the car market, neither party can sue.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Soylent @ Jul 7 2006, 01:45 PM) [snapback]282602[/snapback]</div>

I'd swear Hitachi has been using the Prius brand for their PC's for at least 10 years in Japan, at least as long as Toyota has been selling the Prius car, albeit usually as part of a name, e.g. "Prius Note", "Flora Prius". So I'm not sure who'd be entitled to sue whom, although certainly anyone CAN sue anyone else.

 

The test is "confusingly similar". If either party thinks the other's use of the mark (Prius) is likely to confuse the public, they can sue, at least in the US, I don't know what Japanese law says. The Apple Core/Apple Computer brouhaha heated up with iTunes. The original agreement between them was that Apple Computer would not sell music, which at the time meant vinyl records, and the Beatles would not sell computers. With iTunes, is Apple Computer selling music? Or is it just providing a means to let people easily obtain digital files which can be converted to an audio format, passing along the $0.99 collected per song back to the owner of the audio copyright, minus a small handling fee?

In any event, if you want to download Beatles music, you have to do it illegally, since Apple Corp has not licensed any of its holdings in digital format.