Luxpro Sues Apple for Damages and 'Power Abuse'

Dystopian Rebel writes "The Financial Times reports that Taiwanese company Luxpro (discussed on Slashdot last year) intends to sue Apple for US$100M for 'lost revenue caused by Apple's abuse of their global power.' In 2005, Apple obtained an injunction against Luxpro's Super Shuffle/Super Tangent but the Taiwanese Supreme Court has overturned the injunction, opening the door to Luxpro's legal action. From the article: 'The [Luxpro] product had almost the same measurements and weight, came in a white plastic casing and had similar buttons on the front. Its name, Super Shuffle, also closely resembled the original.'"

Re:Not abuse of power

[belmolis]

Luxpro seems to have three models. The two higher-end ones are quite different from the Apple model due to their displays. The low-end one is much more similar but is nonetheless readily distinguishible from the Apple model due to the prominent Luxpro logo. Insofar as they are not infringing any Apple patents or copyrights and there is no way a reasonable consumer could confuse the two products, Apple has no case.

Re:Not abuse of power

[pdboddy]

Ah, so we *can* blatently rip off any one we want, just slap on our own "prominent" logo and it's all free and clear.

LUXPRO's rip-off was more blatant than they claim!

[argent]

When Apple went after them for the injunction, Luxpro was calling it the "Super Shuffle", not the "Super Tangent", and they were using iPod-style advertising when it was introduced at CeBIT right after Apple introduced the Shuffle. Here's their original advertising material: LUXPRO's Super Shuffle images and promotional materials [macdailynews.com].

Re:Not abuse of power

[dosius]

They certainly don't recognize international copyrights. That's why companies like Son May Records are allowed to exist in Taiwan, where they would be illegal anywhere else.

-uso.