Apple’s very much hyped iPad tablet computer contraption was another great example of how the big firms can get it very wrong.

(Particularly) Because the trade mark for iPad belonged to Fujitsu Siemensm who filed for it in 2003.

That said, it was not quite a mistake of the order of the Google ‘gmail’ stupidity, whereby the ‘gmail’ trade mark was owned in the UK and Germany by other companies (hence the reason gmail is googlemail in the UK).  Apple did at least acknowledge in their press release for the iPad that they did not actually own the trade mark as of that date:

© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Multi-Touch, iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes and Apple Store are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This must you think have made for a rather poor negotiating position with Fujitsu Siemens.

Amusingly, Apple did not originally own the trade mark for iPhone either, Cisco Systems did.