Much ado about a mouse
- Business, Issues, Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. -
The little mouse that could, did.
Generate a lawsuit that is. Apple Inc. and CBS are being sued by a Maryland-based company called Man & Machine for use of the name “Mighty Mouse” for Apple’s innovative little input device. Apparently Man & Machine had dibs on the name as it pertains to input devices, as in waterproof and chemical-resistant industrial-strength mice.
It’s a very circuitous story, actually. I thought naming Apple’s new mouse after the super-rodent we all know and love might result in legal tussles, but when they never materialized I figured Steve took care of it ahead of time. And he did. Apple bought the rights to the name from CBS, who had owned it since 1955, for their new benippled, buttonless wonder.
Then, suddenly, out of a blue sky swoops in Man & Machine, coming to save the day. Apparently they came out with their hospital/lab-friendly version of Mighty Mouse more than a year before Apple’s version, and they now claim that the name, in the context of computer peripherals, belongs to them, thereby compelling themselves to sue both Apple and CBS for the injustice. Man & Machine wants to block Apple’s use of the Mighty Mouse name and get some cash for their trouble. (I think we all know why they took this long to sue, don’t we?)
If they succeed, any suggestions on a new name for it? Mightier Mouse? Rodent Roller? Mouse-k-Steer?
(Via 9to5Mac)



TUAW speculates that this is being done to prevent easy and casual piracy (as in jack it out via the video cable to a recorder, and boom, there goes the neighborhood), and I see where they’re coming from. But still, man. Millions will be up in arms.
