Make cafe-quality espresso coffee at home! Home Barista is an iPhone application (or iPhone app) designed to help people get the most out of their home espresso coffee machines. --homebaristaapp.com

A site member brought my attention to a new iPhone application called "Home Barista". To be clear, Home-Barista.com was registered in 2005, several years before the appearance of Home Barista the iPhone application. As Home-Barista.com is arguably one of the most popular espresso websites in the world, it's hard to imagine this detail escaped the notice of the company that developed this application, Airsource Limited.

Regrettably I do not have a legal fund to pursue trademark infringement battles. However, from my limited understanding of trademark IP, public usage and declaration carries some legal weight.

Back to the iPhone application, a cynic would see their name selection as an attempt to usurp the brand recognition that this site established. I hope this isn't the case, but I have contacted the company CEO, Nick Clarey, to register my complaint that their name choice, graphics choice, and color scheme represents a trademark infringement. I respectfully asked that they reconsider these choices so as not to confuse would-be consumers.



Nick's response was that they have invested a lot of time and energy getting the application out and don't have any plans to change the name.

HB wrote:Nick's response was that they have invested a lot of time and energy getting the application out and don't have any plans to change the name.

If they spent so much time and energy on it then they surely must have researched this website. Such a flip answer is infuriating. Hopefully there are some members who know the law well enough to give you some options and with their direction maybe we members can lend an organized hand.

Have you contacted Apple about this?
Have you told Nick Clarey that you probably have invested more time and more energy to get this website where it is now than he in his little program?
Have you contacted Glasshouse apps, the co-producer of the app?

Have you considered that no sane person would buy it?

Your case is strong though. It's not possible to research espresso based drinks without encountering this site.

Let's assume lawyers aren't going to be a solution to anything here, for a variety of reasons. You probably have more to gain by losing a legal battle than you stand to gain by winning one. You might get a cease-and-desist, but I don't think you could prove HB.com has been or will be damaged, or has lost or will lose business revenue.

So... think of it as free advertising/promotion?

Maybe you could get the iPhone app to have a disclaimer, "Not affiliated with the excellent Home-Barista.com" ... with a hyperlink?

Would be an interesting "area of influence" debate ... 'convergence' and all that.

Regards
T

P.S. iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone

I'm pretty sure the developer will be reading this thread in the next 24h.

Contact Apple. An IP violation is against the Dev kit TOS and a good way to get your app pulled.

The glib response suggests knowingful infringement and unwillingness to resolve amicably.

I sent a quick email giving my opinion on their name choice to the "contact us" address provided here: consulting@airsource.co.uk

Jack

Bluecold wrote:Have you considered that no sane person would buy it?

That's cold comfort after walking by a Starbucks.

FWW
There is this site in Australia that has look and feel:
here
There is a domain name site for sale, it is kept alive by sponsor listings.@ here It does put tracking cookies into your computer!
There was another low rated site but fortunately that has disappeared.
-Richard

Hi.
I am using my iPhone to check out HB all the time. I saw this thread and visited the application in the iPhone app viewer. It looks really lame. And they appear to have at least looked at the real HB site for info or research.

I tried to write a review and state that it looks similar to this website but I have to buy the app first. So that defeats the purpose. It is clearly a rip off of not only the name but the spirit of this HB. But I think it may be difficult to get leverage on them.

Jon