Court Says Apple Doesn't Own The Letter "i" (2024)

FAQs

Does Apple own the letter I? ›

No, Apple has not trademarked the letter "i" itself.

On March 21, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ), together with 15 states and the District of Columbia, filed a complaint in federal district court accusing Apple of monopolizing smartphone markets in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Apple, the Apple logo, Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, iTunes, and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. Apple Vision Pro is a trademark of Apple Inc.

It has definitely lost its "internet" meaning since the iMac helped turn internet connectivity into an everyday part of society. Segall is also right when he further argues that it's not possible to trademark, or otherwise protect, the prefix i. And that could actually be why Apple began moving away from it.

The publication quoted Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at Comparitech as saying, “Steve Jobs said the 'I' stands for 'internet, individual, instruct, inform, (and) inspire. He also alluded to it referencing 'I' as a personal pronoun, and 'instruction' for education purposes.”

United States v. Apple (2012), an antitrust case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held that Apple violated the Sherman Act in conspiring to raise the price of e-books.

The US has filed a landmark lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolising the smartphone market and crushing competition. In the legal action, the justice department alleges the company abused its control of the iPhone app store to "lock in" customers and developers.

The Justice Department, joined by 16 other state and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple for monopolization or attempted monopolization of smartphone markets in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Apple Computer, Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who brought to the new company a vision of changing the way people viewed computers.

Apple (AAPL) Ownership Overview

The ownership structure of Apple (AAPL) stock is a mix of institutional, retail and individual investors. Approximately 48.69% of the company's stock is owned by Institutional Investors, 0.11% is owned by Insiders and 51.20% is owned by Public Companies and Individual Investors.

Can a single letter be trademarked? ›

Yes, a letter can be used as a trademark. However, it often requires substantial evidence to show that the mark has become associated with a specific business. Single-letter trademarks are considered nondescript marks and usually lack the distinctiveness required for registration.

The iPhone company is Apple Inc., and its ownership is distributed among its shareholders. Apple Inc. is a publicly traded company, so it doesn't have a single owner.

In that light, it's no surprise that they used trademark law to their advantage to protect the name of their new, high-profile product. It's true that the lowercase letter “i” prefix became associated closely with Apple and their products – but it wasn't the exclusive domain of Apple itself.

According to Jobs in 1998, the "i" word in "iMac" (and thereafter "iPod", "iPhone" and "iPad") stands for internet, individual, instruct, inform, and inspire.