Apple sued over its use of 'iBook'

A New York book publisher has filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that its use of the term "iBook" violates the publisher's trademark — the second trademark infringement suit filed against the tech giant in less than a week.

Colby's suit acknowledges that Apple has a trademark for "iBook" related to its use on the personal computer, the Mac, sold from 1999 to 2006. Nevertheless, Apple did not begin to use the term to describe an electronic book or method for delivering electronic books until 2010.

"Apple's use of the mark 'iBooks' to denote the electronic library that can be accessed via its iPad tablet computer and its iPhone is likely to overwhelm the goodwill of plaintiffs' 'ibooks' and 'ipicturebooks' marks and render them virtually worthless," the lawsuit states.

Another USPTO search reveals an Apple filing for iBook in 2010 that describes "software for reading electronic publications on digital electronic devices".

The lawsuit comes on the heels of last week's lawsuit

The lawsuit comes on the heels of last week's lawsuit by an Arizona company that accuses Apple of infringing its "iCloud" trademark. iCloud Communications, a Phoenix-based voice over IP provider, alleges that the name of Apple's recently announced online storage service copies its name and causes confusion over competing products.