Apple warned off iWatch after Italy start-up owns trademark

Before Apple Inc officially introduced its smartwatch last month, fans had seemingly decided on the company's behalf that the new product should be called the iWatch. So when Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook took the stage and broke from gadget-naming conventions by calling it the Apple Watch, it came as a bit of a surprise to many people.

But not to Daniele Di Salvo. His small Dublin-based software development studio owns the trademark for iWatch in the European Union, and he's told Apple and other companies not to use the term. The world has been warned.

Di Salvo, a 50-year-old Italian entrepreneur, co-founded Probendi in 2007. His company developed an application called iWatch that helps different devices communicate. For example, police in Vercelli, a small town in northern Italy, use it on their smartphones to send mugshots to headquarters. Probendi filed a trademark for iWatch, covering computing devices and software that went into effect on Aug. 3, 2008, Di Salvo said in a phone interview.

"Probendi is the sole entity lawfully entitled to use the name iWatch for products such as Apple Watch within the European Union, and will promptly take all appropriate legal action to oppose any unauthorised use," Di Salvo said.

Legal battles
Patent wars have ensnared tech giants including Apple in lengthy court battles but navigating the global trademark system can be just as taxing. Apple sued Amazon.com Inc for using Appstore as the name for its Kindle software marketplace, kicking off two years of court battles that were eventually settled. Amazon continues to use the name today. An Apple representative didn't respond to a request for comment.

In 2012, Apple paid $60 million to settle a trademark dispute in China over rights to use the name iPad. And in 2006, then-CEO Steve Jobs previewed a product called the iTV. When the gadget finally hit the market, its name had changed to Apple TV following objections from British television network ITV.

Probendi aims to take full advantage of its rights and plans to build its own wearable device called the iWatch. CEO Di Salvo expects the product to run Google Inc's Android 4.4 software and have a square touchscreen, GPS and accelerometer to facilitate health tracking and other apps. Di Salvo is travelling in China, searching for a manufacturer to churn out a gadget that undercuts the Apple Watch's $349 price tag.