German Egg Holder Manufacturer Sued By Apple

Take it from me: Germans love their iPods, and they love their hard-boiled eggs. The eiPott, then, is a cute little example of German kitsch: it’s an egg holder shaped like an abstraction of an iPod.

You’d think it’d be hard to get upset about such an innocuous little piece of dishware, but Apple apparently did, bringing a lawsuit against koizol, the manufacturer… and now a German high court says that koizol needs to redesign and rename the product, citing potential confusion.

This is ridiculous. While we certainly understand Apple needs to protect their trademarks and brands, the eiPott only shares the most abstract similarity in form to the iPod, and — needless to say — none of the iPod’s functionality. They’re not trying to confuse consumers: they’re trying to entertain them with a tongue-in-cheek homage to one of the most popular brands on Earth.

[via TUAW]

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About the author

John Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Hardware, iPod, News |

Barbara
Sometimes I think Apple takes itself WAY too seriously. Then I remember Windows and think they might have a reason to be a bit twitchy. Still, this one’s a bit ridiculous. Unless Apple plans to come out with an egg related device.
Ryan
Soft boiled eggs. You don’t need a eggcup for hard boiled.
Ernie
Do we really need more garbage like this in the world? Homage or no, this company has created a product that is not only close to useless, but totally uninspired. I have a set of egg cups that are very simple and that I use maybe twice a year. They don’t look like iPods, and they just don’t need to. I’d bet Steve and Co. are bothered more by the waste of resources than any perceived threat to the brand.
Plus it only holds 1 egg at a time, and my library has a dozen.
AllanCook
“Ridiculous” doesn’t begin to describe Apple’s response to this. There is absolutely no chance of any confusion. There is no threat to the Apple brand. I don’t know much about the German judiciary, but its judges must be a pretty cowardly lot.
dboy
Calling BS on Apple and its minion lawyer scum for this kind of behaviour ,, they have turned into the m$ of this decade. Or rather, they imitate the very companies they b*tched about all those years ago. It’s just a feckin egg-cup holder for christssake!
I own a mac by the way, and an iphone – but with the world-domination at all costs that this company is pursuing these are my last ,,
,, until that ipad 2 somes out :( haha
PeterG
The funny thing is that the German word for egg is “ei”, and “pott” well, that’s pretty self explanatory. So in English, that would be like titling your product the “Egg Pott.” Really, the name is mostly made up of common German language elements, and so I’m rather surprised a German judge ruled in favor of Apple on this one.
MMNW
Error in your article. The manufacturer is spelled “koziol”, not koizol.
RGWR
John Brownlee neither Apple nor anyone else gives a flying fuck about what you think. If you’re reporting something on a tech blog just keep your pants on, there’s no need for douchebaggy personal opinions.
FHSS
John Brownlee neither Apple nor anyone else gives a flying fuck about what you think. If you’re reporting something on a tech blog just keep your pants on, there’s no need for douchebaggy personal opinions.
black&white
OT: Is RGWR/FHSS going through an identity crisis?
Nice little gadget. Would love to have it :-)
Nice ‘free’ add