Apple Sues White iPhone Mod Kid, Requests Permission to Swirly

[Phillip Swanson]

Remember the kid who made upwards of $100,000 selling white iPhone mod kits to thousands of people, including Steve Wozniak himself?

Well so does Apple, and they're lowering their Thor-like gavel of justice upon the poor kid's head. And his family too.

The recently filed suit against the New York teenager, Fei Lam, and his parents, claims Lam infringed and diluted "Apple's famous trademarks." However, Apple filed a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit at the very same time, which implies a settlement may have already been reached (gotta love our incredibly efficient legal system).

Lam obtained the parts for his white iphone kits, which he sold on whiteiphone4now.com, from an "unauthorized suppplier in the Shenzen Province in the People's Republic of China." The unauthorized dealer is identified as Alan Yang of Shenzen. The suit claims Apple is in possession of emails and instant messages between Lam and Yang, in which Yang comments his company, Focusupply, has a "friend" at Foxconn.

Apple is fully in the right here exercising their legal muscle, filing for the permanent injunction and forfeiture of profit from sales of the kits, but it will be interesting to see if any details of the possible settlement emerge. How much punishment is Apple willing to dish out to entrepreneurial teenager. Even if the kid knew what he was doing was wrong, he couldn't fathom the possibilities of Apple ruining his life. Let's hope Apple takes it easy on the kid.

Source: MacRumors

[Ven0M0D]

thats f'd up

[spazturtle]

I fudging hate apple

[sirlance0505]

Has apple not seen what has happened to Sony since they sued geohot. Make sure you remove your cc# from iTunes I'm sure this is going to get good in the next few weeks. Apple thinks they are "god-like", hackers don't think so.

[mmaboi21]

Made a killing though

[swarren08]

Its Wozniak, Steve Wozniak, but it does suck

[alpawa]

Apple has the right to sue for copyright infringement and possible subtraction of Apple property and/or materials if the Foxxcon bit is true (how did Apple get the communications, by the way?) Other that that, the kid is just profiting from his entrepreneurial capabilities. Hope Apple does not continue to become the very Big Brother they advertised against in 1984 (remember?)

[RICO_]

thats f'd up

That's business.

I'm willing to bet the settlement involves giving a hefty percentage of profits from kit sales to Apple as they may just see it as an additional source of revenue for those who just want a kit without buying the whole phone.

[alpawa]

Can't see my post!

[dsg]

Appl£ you suck *** big time

by the way I'm taking a dremel to all my Appl£ products to infringed and dilute "Apple's famous trademarks."

[ipodtouchman77]

Poor Kid...

[Cokeman]

Apple is fully in the right here exercising their legal muscle, filing for the permanent injunction and forfeiture of profit from sales of the kits

They may be, but how much money does Apple need? The people that bought the kits paid Apple for the phones. So they sold a black iPhone instead of a white iPhone. Not to mention that Apple announced the white iPhone to be available on launch day, then later delayed it, then delayed it again, then just shut up about it.
Apple filing this is just ridiculous, let alone taking the kids money. If Apple needs 100,000 that bad they need to just quit now.

[Dizi]

The kid had to know this would happen. If not he's a dumbass. A broke dumbass.

[Moody1]

A simple cease and desist in the beginning should of been enough to get him to stop. Apple = Big Bully with lots of Money! They know aftermarket products will never be as good as their OEM standards so consumers who purchased are the ones to lose out, not Apple.

[KooLLaiD]

Apple is fully in the right here exercising their legal muscle,

Are you f*cking kidding me?! How the hell are they in the right? How is it even Apple's right to tell a person what they can and cannot do with their purchased property as in modding the appearance? The most they should be able to do is say the usual of "Modding the iPhone will void it's warranty" just like an auto-maker would tell someone who puts a turbo charger on their car.

I don't believe they have any legal footing on this. The guy didn't market it as an Apple Product, and this is no different than putting a friggin case on the phone really.

Makes me embarrassed to have ever worked for this company

[HCWHunter]

Those of you feeling sorry for the kid need to grow up! The kid was selling OEM parts from Foxconn that had to be stolen because Apple wasn't selling the parts and hadn't released the white iPhone. The parts had the Apple logo and markings which infringes the trademarks. If he had found a source for aftermarket or knock-off parts w/o the logo and markings, then he would have been OK. Of course he wouldn't have sold nearly as many parts w/o the official logo and markings.

[Cokeman]

Those of you feeling sorry for the kid need to grow up! The kid was selling OEM parts from Foxconn that had to be stolen because Apple wasn't selling the parts and hadn't released the white iPhone. The parts had the Apple logo and markings which infringes the trademarks. If he had found a source for aftermarket or knock-off parts w/o the logo and markings, then he would have been OK. Of course he wouldn't have sold nearly as many parts w/o the official logo and markings.

Where is the lawsuit for the Foxconn employee or the seller? For Apple to get their hands on the emails between the kid & the seller, they no who was getting them from Foxconn.
Yeah I feel sorry for the kid, Apple makes billions on the iPhone, this kids measly 100,000 is a joke.

The iPhone is "Not for Resale" so why isn't Apple filing for injunctions to stop companies like Plemix, Negri Electronics, & all the others to stop selling the iPhone at outrageous prices?

Apple could have just contacted the kid, stop now & we will leave it alone, continue & face legal action. Problem solved.

[topless1967stang]

Wow, Apple sues over some law which more than 99.999% percent of the people what not know about, but Apple has big dollars to hire the big attorneys to find something to charge him with. What's really funny is Apple says he was engaging in unfair competition..lol
OK, so they think this teenager was being unfair to Apple's business. What seems unfair competition is Apple's power lawyer teams against a teen, who probably can't hire a single mediocre attorney.

Now, an email address and phone number was listed in that complaint form. A large number of emails and phone calls should be considered.

[CrAzYiaN]

Where is the lawsuit for the Foxconn employee or the seller? For Apple to get their hands on the emails between the kid & the seller, they no who was getting them from Foxconn.
Yeah I feel sorry for the kid, Apple makes billions on the iPhone, this kids measly 100,000 is a joke.

The iPhone is "Not for Resale" so why isn't Apple filing for injunctions to stop companies like Plemix, Negri Electronics, & all the others to stop selling the iPhone at outrageous prices?

Apple could have just contacted the kid, stop now & we will leave it alone, continue & face legal action. Problem solved.

i agree 100% with what he said.

[syedsufyan]

First of all, Apple has no right to hack into some dudes email account and read all his emails. Second, why would Steve Wozniak buy one if he was going to sue him for it?