Apple and the Japanese company emonster are fighting for the Animoji trademark
All Apple users know about Animoji, an app available on iOS which allows them to integrate animated emojis in their messages. However, the app might not be available for a long time from now on, as a Japanese company is suing Apple for using this name. According to the company, they own the trademark since 2014, and the tech giant was perfectly aware of it.
A Japanese company claims to have already been owning the Animoji trademark
The company emonster, together with a US citizen living in Japan, Enrique Bonansea, claim they were the first ones to came up with the Animoji name in 2014. They had also applied for a trademark back then, which was approved in 2015. Therefore, they decided to issue a lawsuit against Apple, and stop it from using their name.
However, this is not an unfortunate situation where a company is not aware it’s using a name someone else owns the rights for. Emonster and Bonansea claim Apple was perfectly aware of them owning the name, as it even tried to buy it. To convince the owners to sell it, they apparently brought up the Emoji Law Group, and claimed they wouldn’t be allowed to use it if they don’t agree to sell it.
Apple has a different opinion in the matter
However, this Emoji Law Group is only a theory, and there’s no evidence which links Apple to such an action. What Apple did, in fact, was to defend its right to use the Animoji name, and claimed emonster didn’t exist in 2014.
Although the lawsuit has been issued, the judges haven’t released an official statement regarding the future of Animoji. Such an event might obscure the release of iPhone X, preventing future users from sending animated emojis to their friends. However, there’s still plenty of time to decide the fate of the app and the trademark.
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