Apple sues USPTO over refusal to grant AR software trademarks

Apple has filed a lawsuit in Virginia federal court challenging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s refusal to grant trademarks covering the company’s augmented-reality software development tools “Reality Composer” and “Reality Converter.”
Apple’s Reality Composer and Reality Converter software allows developers to create and alter 3-D augmented-reality content.
Blake Brittain for Reuters:
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“Consumers must exercise imagination to understand how the nonsensical phrases ‘reality composer’ and ‘reality converter’ — which sound like science fiction impossibilities — relate to Apple’s products,” the complaint said. “They are suggestive, just as Burger King is a fast-food chain, not an actual monarch.”
Turkish visual-effects company ZeroDensity challenged Apple’s trademark applications at the USPTO, arguing that the phrases could not receive federal trademarks because they merely describe what the software does. ZeroDensity also said Apple’s trademarks would cause confusion with its own “Reality”-related marks.
A USPTO tribunal agreed with ZeroDensity that Apple’s marks were descriptive without addressing whether they would confuse consumers. Apple said in Friday’s complaint that its phrases were “made-up terms coined by Apple that do not describe the underlying software development tools.”
“In contrast, descriptive terms like Raisin Bran or American Airlines straightforwardly describe the goods and services offered under the brand name,” Apple said. “As innovative as Apple is, it cannot ‘compose’ or ‘convert’ reality.”

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MacDailyNews Note: Find out more about Apple’s creation tools for spatial apps, Reality Composer Pro, Reality Composer for iOS, and Reality Converter, here.
Apple’s trademarks list, on which Reality Composer and Reality Composer Pro reside, is here.
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