With the unveiling of the updated Apple TV, reports have surfaced which suggest the iconic tech firm filed a vital trademark linked to the project months in advance. This underpins a point made regularly by Turner Little; protecting intellectual property is a must for new businesses.
Intellectual property
In a previous post, the Turner Little team argued that intellectual property (IP) often proves central to the success of an emerging small business. We went on to note, however, that IP only proves effective if it’s protected from the outset; indeed, venture capitalists often site defensible IP as one of the top things they want to see when they encounter a startup.
We went on to point out that it’s your responsibility to police your own IP. Now we want to go further; it’s your job to ensure that you move to protect IP as early as possible, so you can ensure that it works to your full advantage when you start using it build a brand identity for your company. If you want a recent example of the effectiveness of this strategy, just look at Apple.
Trademarking “tvOS”
The firm’s CEO, Tim Cook, recently hosted an event to reveal the latest line of Apple products to the world, including the revamped Apple TV. An overnight report from 9to5Mac said that the updated device’s operating system has been christened “tvOS.” Mac Rumours presented evidence to suggest that Apple had moved to trademark “tvOS” possibly as far back as November 2014.
A firm called “Television OnStream LLC” lodged a series of Trademark filings back in May 2015 in a number of countries. It seems as though this is a shell company, based out of the Corporation Trust Centre in Delaware, which looks as though it was created just days prior to the filings. This is a tactic many major companies – including Apple – are known to employ to conceal trademark fillings.
Further evidence
Also, each of the May trademark applications referenced a priority date of November 2014 for a filing made in Jamaica. It’s likely that Apple employed another of it’s oft used tactics to conceal new trademarks. The tech giant is known to file trademarks in Jamaica to conceal their existence, as the Caribbean country doesn’t maintain an online database of trademark fillings.
There’s no concrete connection between Apple and “tvOS,” but evidence suggests that Apple moved to protect it’s IP as early as possible. Television Onstream LLC not only filed “tvOS” as an acronym, a tactic Apple previously employed with the “iPad,” they used specific law firms that Apple are known to have employed for previous filings. The Italian trademark filing of “tvOS” was handled by London-based firm Locke Lord; the same company Apple trademarked “watch OS” with in Italy earlier in 2015.
Turner Little
The evidence suggests Apple was behind the “tvOS” filings, and demonstrates that filing trademarks offshore allows you to protect your IP. With the help of offshore companies, an area Turner Little specialises in, you can limit what competitors know about trademark filings, so your IP can help you build a big, successful brand name.
Turner Little was founded in 1998 and it has since become a well-established UK based professional Company Registration Agents, Registered Bank Intermediaries and Business Consultants, as well as Trust providers.
