Filtered By: Scitech
SciTech

Apple threatens lawsuit over Jobs action figure


Apple Inc. is not happy with an action figure of its late co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, and has threatened to sue a company accepting orders for it.
 
UK's The Telegraph reported the tech giant claims to have the rights to the likeness of the 12-inch action figure of Jobs.
 
It said that Apple wrote the Chinese manufacturer that any toy that resembles the technology company's logo, person's name, appearance or likeness of its products is a "criminal offence."
 
In Icons, the maker of the figure —complete with Jobs's trademark blue jeans, sneakers and black turtleneck sweater— was set to release it in February.
 
Accessories include a pair of black socks, some glasses, a leather belt, two apples (one with a bite taken out of it), a bar stool and a "One More Thing" backdrop. 
 
The Telegraph reported that online auctioning site eBay is selling the plastic figure at $135 each. The normal retail price would have been $99.
 
But a separate article on The Next Web quoted In Icon boss Tandy Cheung as saying Apple could “do anything they like,” adding the company “will not stop, we already started production.”
 
It said Cheung had spoken with lawyers in Hong Kong who had told him that he was not violating Apple’s intellectual property as long as he didn’t include any Apple products.
 
“Steve Jobs is not an actor, he’s just a celebrity… There is no copyright protection for a normal person. Steve Jobs is not a product… so I don’t think Apple has the copyright of him,” The Next Web quoted Cheung as saying.
 
But The Next Web also noted Apple has successfully blocked sales of other Steve Jobs models in the past, curbing sales of a figurine created by MIC Gadget in 2010. — TJD, GMA News
LOADING CONTENT