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The iPhone Drink App Intellectual Property Litigation Wars

By Brendan McKenna

Being a sorry excuse for an iPhone user -- I don't have a single game downloaded on my phone and use the bare minimum of apps on a regular basis -- I was naturally surprised to learn that not only are there iPhone apps that will virtually transform your cell phone into the beverage of your choice, but that such a thing is popular enough to inspire intellectual property litigation. Via techdirt, here's the tale of two iPhone apps -- developer Hottrix's "iMilk" and The Hershey Co.'s "HERSHEY Chocolate Milk" -- that can quench your, um, "thirst" for the frosty beverage. (Hottrix also offers iBeer and iSoda if you're craving something less wholesome.) Hershey sued seeking a declaratory judgment that its app didn't infringe Hottrix's copyrights on iMilk, and Hottrix counter-sued with a number of claims, including copyright infringement, unfair competition and tortious interference, alleging that Hershey copied the "look and feel" of iMilk. Techdirt reports that Hottrix filed a similar case against Coors a few years back over its virtual beer app. (Shannon Duffy of The Legal Intelligencer also covers the iMilk case in this article.) Now a federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied Hershey's motion to dismiss and...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).