Macworld.com is upgrading some back-end systems. Some site features, such as user registration, may be temporarily unavailable.
iPhoneCentral

All about the iPhone, iPod touch, and App Store from the Apple experts

  • 0 Comments
  • 0 Recommendations

iBeer developer sues Carling

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld U.K.’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.

iPhone application developer Steve Sheraton of Hottrix is suing brewery giant Molson Coors—makers of Carling—for over $12.5 million in damages for allegedly copying his $3 beer-pouring app, iBeer.


iBeer from Hottrix lets you drink a virtual glass of beer on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Coors/Carling offer a free beer-pouring application through iTunes, but Sheraton is claiming the brewery illegitimately lifted his idea in order to advertise Carling.

iBeer uses the iPhone accelerometer to simulate a glass of lager being poured and then drunk. Sheraton claims he was initially contacted by Coors UK ad agency with a view to license the software, but the brewery later turned to another firm to create the nearly identical app, iPint. (While available in the U.K. version of the iTunes Store, iPint is not currently offered in the U.S. store.)

Sheraton is arguing that the brewery’s introduction of a similar application at a lower price, and the history of dealings between the firms, constitutes and offence which “significantly impair the downloading of iBeer.”

  • Recommend? 0 YES 0 NO
  • 0 Comments
  •  
  • Print

"iBeer developer sues Carling" Comments

Tip us off!

Email: iphone [at] macworld [dot] com
Vmail: 1-415-520-9761

Subscribe/RSS

Subscribe to our weekly iPhone newsletter

  • Get the latest news, reviews, and opinion about Apple's groundbreaking iPhone from the Apple experts at Macworld.

    Want more information? Be sure to check out our complete iPhone coverage.

Macworld iPod Touch & iPhone App Review Essential Collections View all »