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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+techonomics

Apple has been sued over its use of the "Animoji" trademark [theverge.com]. Apple uses the name for its iPhone X feature that allows users to control and send emoji using their own facial expressions. Apple claims that the trademark is invalid:

A Japanese company, which owns the trademark for "Animoji" in the US, is suing Apple for using the word to name its iPhone X feature. The Tokyo-based company, Emonster, filed the suit on Wednesday [almcms.com] in US federal court [therecorder.com], saying, "Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself." The company's CEO, Enrique Bonansea, is a US citizen living in Japan.

Emonster owns an iOS [apple.com] app called Animoji [apple.com] that launched in 2014, which lets people send emoji that are animated in a loop like GIFs. The app asks you to compose the message kind of like how you would format a line of code in Python or Javascript, with parentheses and brackets that separate the kinds of effects you want to add to text or emoji. The app costs $0.99 on iTunes.

Emonster claims that Apple knew about the trademark and offered to buy it, but was turned down. Emonster has owned the "animoji" trademark since 2015, but Apple filed a petition to cancel the trademark [vox-cdn.com] on the grounds that EMONSTER, INC. was dissolved in the State of Washington in 2004 and did not exist when the trademark application was filed on August 20, 2014 by Enrique Bonansea, who identified himself as the President of EMONSTER, INC.

Also at Reuters [reuters.com] and AppleInsider [appleinsider.com].

Previously: Apple's New iPhone X will let You Control the Poo Emoji with Your Face [soylentnews.org]

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