In a significant development, Apple has won a lawsuit filed against Xiaomi in EU court. The end result of the judgment is that Xiaomi will not be able to register Mi Pad as a trademark in Europe. The main reason is attributed to the similarity with Apple iPad. It is to be noted that both Mi Pad and iPad are tablet devices with large display and intended for ebook reading and other activities.
According to the EU court, the Mi Pad cannot be allowed to be registered as a trademark because of the similarity in the signs. Even though alphabet “M” present, it is not sufficient when it comes to a technology product. There is a very high degree of visual and phonetic similarity between Mi Pad and iPad.
The judgment came after a three-year-long hectic argument between two sides. The Lei Jun-owned company had filed an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to register Mi Pad as a trademark in 2014.
In 2016, Apple filed a complaint before EUIPO regarding the naming confusion. According to EUIPO, the consumes especially English speaking would easily misinterpret Mi and My in Mi Pad. It sounds similar to that of the iPad and there is a possibility for consumers to believe that Mi Pad is actually a product of Apple.
The EU court has approved the findings of EUIPO and added that “Mi” can be read as “My“. Hence, both Mi Pad and iPad looks like a device from the same company which had the original trademark. There are reports that Xiaomi is planning to appeal against the ruling at the Court of Justice of the European Union. We don’t have any confirmation from either Xiaomi and Apple regarding the EU court developments.
Apparently, the company initially released the first edition of Mi Pad in 2014. The device became popular especially in Asian countries like India but the company stopped updates due to reasons not known to us. The company also released Mi Pad 2 but not made available in India. Even though Mi Pad is still a great device, lack of updates is the cause of main concern. In India, customers purchased the Mi Pad for around Rs. 11000 but left with no idea as to what to do with the tablet.
The tech companies are facing tough war in a bid to retain market space. Yesterday, Google and Amazon had a bitter battle over sharing of YouTube videos on Echo show device.
