Apple's iTablet -- Wait, You'll Have to Call It Something Else [UPDATE]

The one thing we don't know about Apple's device is the name, but it probably won't be called "iTablet" unless Apple is willing to get into a copyright fight a la Cisco and the iPhone.

The Taiwanese company AMteK is already marketing a product called iTablet. AMteK featured the Windows 7-run touchscreen computer at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

What does this mean? It means it could be a fight down the road similar to Cisco's 2007 lawsuit against Apple for the iPhone name. Cisco copyrighted "iPhone" back in 2000. The two companies reached an agreement shortly after to both keep using the name, but not within the same context. I suspect AMteK is no Cisco, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't require a payoff from Apple.

Besides, "tablet" is already associated with dozens of PCs and, at this point, is almost a generic term for a keyboard-less computer, a la Kleenex to tissue or Jeep to off-road vehicle. For what it's worth, my bet is on iSlate.

[UPDATE] Revealed as the iPad yesterday, Apple's device still shares its name with another portable machine. Today The New York Times reports Fujitsu has been selling an iPad device for nearly a decade. Oops. "Fujitsu, which applied for an iPad trademark in 2003, is claiming first dibs, setting up a fight with Apple over the name of the new tablet device that Apple plans to sell starting in March."

First photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccaffry/ / CC BY 2.0 Second photo courtesy of http://www.perivision.net/wordpress/?p=2572