Hottrix, a small company that developed the iBeer application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices is suing Coors for $12.5M.The claim, in a 12 page filing, is that rival application iPint is violating a copyright that the iBeer author Steve Sheraton registered.
Both applications display a virtual pint which when the device is tipped to one side mimics a real pint of lager being consumed.
Sheraton stresses that the iBeer technique was "wholly original ... and is copyrightable subject matter." Sheraton then complained to Apple, which eventually removed iPint from the App Store in the United States. However, iPint still appears in the App Store in other countries.
"We are confident that we’ve handled this matter appropriately, and will vigorously defend the action," Coors said in a statement.
The little guy is only going after the big guy in this case because they know theres a good chance of getting money out of it.
how pointless can this be?
this sounds exactly like the kind of news some crappy sites would report in april ...
that is outright ridiculous...
Glassed Silver:win
quadruple spaced perhaps.....and really...really big type.
iBeer costs about 89p I think, and isnt a smooth animation, its laggy. iPint is free, completely smooth and fluid, and has a fun minigame built in.
AFAIK it is a patent matters and not a copyright infringement.
Waiting for someone to rip off your completely lame iPhone "app", and then suing is not a job, it's a giant waste of everyone's time.
*sigh* Idiots.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.