SOMERSET, England - There's a storm brewing between Apple Inc. and Love Labs LLP, maker of the iBuzz music-activated vibrating bullet, which connects to an Apple iPod - or any multimedia player - and vibrates in time to the beat. The iBuzz website for some time has featured animation that shows silhouettes of people stimulating themselves with the vibrator-images similar to Apple's "silhouette" advertisements for the iPod, in which animations depict people listening to music.
This similarity inspired Apple's U.K.-based intellectual property lawyers, FFW, to write Love Labs, claiming the animation violated Apple's copyright. Richard Longhurst, a partner in Love Labs LLP, feels there is no merit in Apple's claim.
"Love Labs is a small company that develops innovative sex toys. It launched iBuzz in December 2005 and followed up with iBuzz Two in November 2006," Longhurst says. "While the Love Labs animation was similar in style to Apple's iPod campaign, there is no copyright in style, so Apple's claim is unfounded.
"Apple is essentially claiming that it has copyright in pornographic images, which it may well do, but we'd like to see them prove it," he adds.
Love Labs has even found some benefit in the threatened legal action, Longhurst says. "The online newswires and technology blogs have been buzzing...with the story," he claims. Longhurst contends that the complaint from Apple - which also advertises the iPod with the slogan "Think Different" - has raised the profile of iBuzz.
While Love Labs already had decided to discontinue use of the animation prior to the case, Longhurst feels others can learn from the situation.
"It's a warning to be sure of your legal footing," he cautions. "We knew we hadn't copied Apple's silhouettes, so their claim for copyright infringement was [groundless]."
