Why a businessman from Berlin complains against Apple

A Berlin businessman bothers so much on the name of Apple's messenger app iMessage that he complains before the Regional Court of Braunschweig against the US group. As the SPIEGEL reported in its current issue, the company wants to achieve that Apple's service is no longer confused with its own. (Read the whole story here)

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The plaintiff, Dietmar Gollnick, is head of the radio network operator e * message, which is represented since 2000 on the market. Apple, the most valuable company in the history of the stock exchange, launched its iMessage product in 2011. The iMessage service, like e * message, is used to send messages, even though the technology behind it is different.

Pager or messenger

Golnick's company e * message offers so-called pager services. Pagers are notifiers who use emergency services, hospitals and utilities to alert their staff in emergencies. Baden-Wuerttemberg's schools use Gollnick's services to inform teachers about running amok, hundreds of fire brigades from Rostock to the Porsche factory fire department conduct their task forces via e * message.

iMessage, on the other hand, is best known in the consumer market and is one of Apple's most widely used services, with an estimated 200,000 messages sent out every second. It works much like an SMS, but the message is transmitted over the Internet and is always encrypted, even if the recipient uses iMessage.

A verdict in the dispute is expected in November. The regional court Braunschweig indicated that it could follow the arguments against Apple. Apple said that they comment "in principle, no open procedures". If the court prohibits the group to use the word iMessage as before, the billion-dollar iPhone maker is likely to pull before the Federal Court. But Gollnick is determined to fight it through.

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