When Apple first unveiled its smartwatch last year, there were more than a few punters that were disappointed the tech giant didn’t call the device the iWatch.
Instead Apple went with Apple Watch. But to make sure Apple fans do manage to find the Apple Watch when searching online, Apple has been paying for search engine advertising for the term “iWatch”.
The problem is another company, Dublin-based software development studio, Probendi, does make a product called the iWatch and owns the trademark to the name in Europe.
Probendi is now seeking to stop Apple from using the name in its advertising, having filed a lawsuit against Apple in a Milan court at the end of June, according to Fairfax. A hearing has been scheduled for November 11.
Probendi claims it has attempted to contact both Apple and Google about the ads but the two tech giants have declined to comment on the case.
Some opponents to European laws that grant individuals the ‘right to be forgotten’ in online search results have until now claimed the laws are vulnerable to abuse by criminals or less-than-upstanding members of the community seeking to hide information about themselves.
But this week Google accidentally revealed data about who is requesting to be forgotten. And as Julia Powles writes for the Guardian, it is everyday people, usually with little public profile, who are asking for their information to be removed.
“The vast majority of successful delisting requests concern information that Google has itself categorised as ‘private or personal information’. Only a tiny proportion of requests concern serious crime, political data, or public figures – and even those are more likely to come from victims, rather than perpetrators.
“It confirms the root of the right to be forgotten issue: that Google is the web’s main arbiter of information, and has immense control over how we are represented and identified digitally.
Much of the focus of the media coverage about Reddit this week has been about the resignations of chief executive Ellen Pao and chief engineer Bethanye Bount, as well as Steve Huffman’s return to the company.
However, another former Reddit chief executive, Yishan Wong, has also waded into the debate about the future of the online platform.
According to Wong’s most recent reveal, republished at Gawker, the board of Reddit has always wanted to rid the platform of its subreddits that so often descend into “extremes of hate”. And now that Pao has left the company, Wong says redditors can now expects some “Rules” from “The Man”.
News Editor
Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on Twitter at @ellykeating.
