Monday, April 8, 2013

Can you hear me now? Apple's EarPods accused of infringing Hearing aid company's HearPods

Apple Inc., owner of the U.S. federally registered marks, EarPods ® and Apple EarPods ® has been accused of infringing the trademark of Randolph Divisions' HearPods ®.  It's a struggle to believe that a consumer of hearing aids (presumably, a sophisticated consumer and one not likely to make an impulse purchase of a hearing aid) would think that Apple's iPod/earbud-style earphones, Earpods®, are associated with a company known for making hearing aids.  Therefore, it seems unlikely that such a consumer would be confused as to the origin of Apple's Earpods and believe there is a connection with the hearing aid company Randolph Division.  Further, unless you are both visually impaired and hearing disabled (i.e., the Helen Keller's among us), it's hard to envision that one would not see the difference between the marks "EARpod" and "HEARpod".  Finally, what makes the alleged infringement even more incredulous is that the markets for the two products, mobile audio/music and hearing aids, are completely different.  In the end, it seems like Randolph Divisions will have an uphill battle to prove trademark infringement.




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