| Reuters is reporting that Apple and Abdul Traya have resolved their court battle on the domain appleimac.com. Mr. Traya had registered the domain in an effort to draw traffic to his web hosting business, an effort that Apple took exception to.
Apple began the fray by issuing legal letters demanding that Mr. Traya hand over the domain as both Apple and iMac are Apple trademarks. Mr. Traya retaliated by demanding that Apple donate 30 iMacs to his school in exchange for the Cyber-territory. Apple refused to do so and the situation continued for several weeks.
According to Reuters, the situation came to an end when Apple agreed to pay legal fees and a token amount of money to Mr. Traya in exchange for the domain. The terms are not public, but the report says that both Apple and Mr. Traya are satisfied with the results.
Mr. Traya still succeeded in drawing attention to his web hosting business as his site drew almost half a million visitors to the site in the week following Apple's opening salvo.
The Mac Observer Spin: It would have been interesting to see how this would have ended up in court. With Apple's superior resources, they would have likely won to be sure.
Apple should have taken the opportunity to score some massive PR points by making a donation to Mr. Traya's school. Apple certainly has to protect its trademarks, but a way could have been found that would have allowed Apple to make the donation without setting any precedents. There is nothing wrong with looking like a good guy every once in a while.
Many might retaliate to that by saying that Mr. Traya went on record saying that registering the domain was a blatant attempt to capitalize on the success of the iMac in the first place.
Apple
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