Let's not confuse arguments that benefit Apple with blind support of Apple. Intentionally making a phone that copies the iPhone is clearly wrong, IMO. This clock issue is quite a bit murkier.
I guess the question is - whether someone who was going to purchase Hilfiker's clock for their wall, will mistakenly purchase an iPad instead...
Seriously though - I have to believe in this IP excited environment that we're in, that the lawyer must have signed off (in triplicate) before they released this clock on the iPad.
Just spent 10 minutes reviewing everything he invented for Apple. :-)
http://gizmodo.com/343641/1960s-braun-products-hold-the-secr...
You mean, as in "I will now pay homage to HBO by torrenting the second season of Carnivale"?
1) As was said above, no one will mistakenly buy an iPad instead of one of these railway clocks -- typically the grounds around which these IP infringement cases revolve -- and I'm not even sure if you can even buy this clock anyway.
2) Apple isn't illegally distributing these preventing their creator from a source of revenue they previously had.
This is quite obviously a digital homage to an iconic physical product much like the Braun calculators.
I'm not saying this is a good approach for Apple, or that they're safe from more general copyright infringement, but you've twisted the logic here so badly it misrepresents the issue.
There it is claimed that the SBB (Swiss Federal Railway company) holds the copyright and trademark on the clock. A representative claims that the use is indeed unauthorized, and that they are contacting Apple, trying to seek a legal and financial solution.
Swiss Railway clock images here: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=swiss+railway+clock&tbm...
http://www.amazon.com/Mondaine-White-Black-Leather-A627-3030...
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Apple_takes_a_bite_of_S...
- Albert Einstein
