One of Apple’s most fiercely guarded secrets? The name of the next iPhone.<\/p>\n
It’s known that the device will launch later this year, complete with a stainless steel and glass body, a better screen and a speedy 3-D sensor that recognizes your face. It may be called the iPhone X to celebrate the iconic product’s tenth anniversary or just iPhone 8.<\/p>\n
But Tim Cook doesn’t want us to know for sure until he utters the name on stage.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Apple-obsessed sleuths have managed to ferret out the names and details of the company’s products by searching trademark offices around the world. But their challenge has become exponentially harder\u00a0thanks to a well-timed rule change at\u00a0Jamaica’s trademark office and some clever maneuvering\u00a0in\u00a0Liechtenstein.<\/p>\n
First a little background. Apple has employed various tactics to keep its product names secret over the years. One is to simply register the name via a Delaware shell company.<\/p>\n
That’s what the company did\u00a0as it\u00a0was preparing to launch the iPad in 2010.\u00a0\u00a0But the trademark was also filed in major regions like Asia, and by the time Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at a splashy event in San Francisco,\u00a0the self-styled detectives had plastered the product’s name all over the web.<\/p>\n
A more effective approach also used\u00a0by Google, Amazon and other tech companies involves\u00a0registering names in foreign countries without searchable trademark databases. The tactic leverages\u00a0a rule in section 44(d) of the U.S.<\/p>\n
Trademark Act that lets companies\u00a0apply for a trademark in one country and receive registration priority in the US if filed there\u00a0within six months of the original, foreign filing date.<\/p>\n
Of the 177 countries\u00a0that comply with US rules, 66 lack online trademark databases. These include \u00a0Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Peru and Jamaica. The latter has become a favorite hiding place for companies such as Apple.<\/p>\n
The Jamaica Intellectual Property Office is\u00a0housed in a modern palm-flanked\u00a0building in the capital, Kingston. Thirty-one people work there and at least 10 trademark searches are conducted each day, according to the office’s director\u00a0Lilyclaire Bellamy.<\/p>\n
The only way to conduct searches is in-person, meaning\u00a0sleuths need to fly to Jamaica or hire a local trademark lawyer to search the office’s computer system\u00a0like an old-school library. Searches are free, but it costs 150 Jamaican dollars ($1.17) to print out each page.<\/p>\n
Last year, a Dublin-area\u00a0attorney named Brian Conroy, having learned that Apple used Jamaica to register its trademarks,\u00a0decided to see if he could dig up information on\u00a0future products. Why would an Irish lawyer\u00a0do such a thing with no obvious way to monetize the information?<\/p>\n
In an email, he cited three reasons: “Because I could,\u00a0because I quite like the little glimpse into the future that newly filed trademarks can give [and]\u00a0shameless self-promotion.”<\/p>\n
Conroy figured the international celebrity would help him land\u00a0“cool new clients who might not want a boring lawyer in a suit.”<\/p>\n
The self-described “trademark ninja” paid\u00a0a local law firm\u00a0hundreds of dollars\u00a0to search the office’s on-site computers – and hit a rich vein. Months before Apple’s September and October launch events last year, Conroy published a list of trademarks applied for in Jamaica.<\/p>\n
One pair of filings, the “iPhone 7” and “iPhone 7 Plus,” were obviously the next handset models. Conroy also pulled up less obvious names like “AirPods” and “Touch Bar.”<\/p>\n
The AirPods ended up being the name for Apple’s new wireless earphones, while the Touch Bar is the touch screen strip on the latest MacBook Pro keyboards. The name AirPods popped up even earlier under a shell company trademark in the US.<\/p>\n
A few months ago, Apple\u00a0applied to register the trademark for its new Siri-powered speaker in Liechtenstein – the first time the company had used the principality to file for trademark priority in the US While the principality has an online trademark database, product names don’t show up until the trademark application is approved, a process that takes time. As a result the world didn’t learn the gadget’s name -HomePod- until its unveiling\u00a0in June. Apple declined to comment.<\/p>\n
“I suspect Apple will keep jumping from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to keep prying eyes away,” Conroy says. “It would be a shot in the dark every time to find the trademarks of future product names.”<\/p>\n
Even a shot in the dark may be overly optimistic. Three weeks after the Jamaican trademark filings for the new iPhone and earphones hit the web last year, the local trademark office made it a lot harder to search for product names.<\/p>\n
Under new rules posted in the office\u00a0and reviewed by Bloomberg, “proprietor searches and date range searches\u00a0will no longer be available using these public computers.<\/p>\n
Proprietor searches will be performed by the office upon request and payment of the requisite fees, with only information on published and registered marks being provided.”<\/p>\n
Office director Bellamy says the notice isn’t a change and was posted to\u00a0ensure\u00a0visitors understand the rules. But Conroy considers the notice a substantial adjustment.<\/p>\n
He says it’s now next to impossible to discover product names, especially for entirely new gadgets or computers. “You can no longer search for ‘any applications filed by Apple in the last X months,'” Conroy says,\u00a0“which is what you really need to do to find trademarks for products which don’t yet exist and which we don’t know the name of.”<\/p>\n