Sue! Sue! Sue!`(and think later)

In my humble opinion it's pretty normal to take a dispute about some matter to court. The courts are there to provide aid in cases where 2 or more parties are in dispute and can't find a solution by themselves. Offcourse I'm talking civil law here, not a lawsuit to convict OJ or something similar.

I noticed a blog on slashdot.org which really got me thinking:

"Apple is taking legal action against adult retail chain Anne Summers over adverts for a new iGasm sex toy.

The device consists of a pair of headphones and a "vibrating unit" which, once plugged into any media player, vibrates in time to the tune. The adverts use the same silhouette figures as Apple, but with a white cord leading inside the figure's underwear."

The first thing that came to my mind was: WHY?!

I'm not talking about the added value, or the smart marketing of this new toy. I'm wondering why Apple would take legal action? What has Apple to gain?

The iGasm is added value to an iPod. I don't own an iPod, but knowing that there is a wide variety of add-on devices that can bring more pleasure to using an iPod would push me towards iPod instead of a model offered by the competition. (being male the usability off this particular devices is limited at best, but I'm thinking in general) The iGasm helps (maybe a little bit) in setting the standard for MP3-devices to Apple iPod. Not a reason to take legal action.

Maybe Apple is worried about it's good name and thinks this could be negative publicity. Well... if you have enough braincells to go out and buy an iPod, download MP3's and upload them to your iPod, chances are you won't actually think that Apple is expanding it's market to the adult industrie!

Offcourse it could be just a very cheap publicity stunt by Apple, abusing the introduction of the iGasm. This would be pretty hypocrit though... If I thought that was the case I'd think twice about picking Apple as my brand in anything. Which means that if Apple's motivation to start taking legal action aren't cheap publicity for them, they certainly are free publicity for the iGasm! Untill Apple decided to take legal action, and offcourse someone blogged this, I had never heard of "Anne Summers" and/or a device called the iGasm. And chances are I would never have...

If Apple had brought out a public newsmessage and sent a copy to the adult store saying:

"We at Apple giggled and had a good laugh about the introduction of the iGasm, and although we are pleased to see that our products are inspiring in many ways, we will have to ask the adult store to stop selling this product. Or at least alter the way they present it, because this might get people to think that Apple has expended it's market into other industries than we actually have."

It would have had *at least* the same impact, would have had all options open to take legal actions, and would have much better been beneficial to Apple.

"Anne Summers is taking the request less than seriously. "Perhaps I can send them an iGasm to put a smile back on their faces," company head Jacqueline Gold told the News of the World."

The people at Anne Summers seem to know how to play this game! By only putting out a single sentence they:
- were provocative enough to reach a big audience
- were subtle enough not to provide more ammo for Apple's autornies
- probably altered the public opinion in favor of themselves
- get even more attention to there product

This product will most likely go out of stock 5 times before Apple actually puts a stop to it.