Daewoo in a blue fury over iMac copycat row

The Daewoo Group and its US-based distributor Future Power are demanding a retraction of Apple's announcement that it has won an injunction against them, claiming it is misleading.

The Daewoo Group and its US-based distributor Future Power are demanding a retraction of Apple's announcement that it has won an injunction against them, claiming it is misleading.

Apple filed a law suit against Daewoo and eMachines last year, alleging that the companies' computers had copied the look of its iMac consumer PC.

But Apple last week posted a notice to its Web site which stated that it had "successfully concluded its iMac trade dress infringement cases against Daewoo and eMachines by securing worldwide injunctions that prevent the two (companies) from manufacturing, distributing, selling or promoting their respective computers, eOne and E-Power."

The site adds that the court also granted an injunction against Future Power's distribution or sale of the E-Power PC.

But John Gorman, an attorney at law firm Gorman & Miller, claimed that Apple and Daewoo had reached a negotiated settlement in early March which permits the sale of E-Power in a 'silvery blue-coloured' plastic casing.

He said the injunction prohibited Daewoo from selling E-Power computers and other machines with a similar shape and size in bondi blue, blueberry, tangerine, strawberry, grape, lime and graphite for a limited period of four years.

But Gorman claimed no settlement had been reached between Apple and Future Power and the distributor intended to pursue the claims made in the lawsuit.

"Apple has no legal right to monopolise the sale of coloured computers.

"There is no realistic likelihood that consumers will confuse a Windows-based PC that is clearly labelled as an 'E-Power by Future Power' with an 'iMac from Apple'," Gorman said.

Bill Voecks, general manager at Future Power, said Daewoo was "in the process" of introducing a 'silvery-blue' version of the vendor's E-Power to the US market.