If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em! Fitbug, a company that produces high-tech pedometers is suing Fitbit, a company that produces high-tech pedometers, claiming that the latter is causing confusion in the marketplace and “irreparable harm and damage to” Fitbug. This strikes us as similar to Apple complaining about the “rounded corners” of their competitors’ devices.
The complaint claims that Fitbit has stolen many design elements from not only the products, but also marketing and packaging. For example, Fitbug says that “many of the diagrams that are used to depict an individual's activity and food intake are nearly identical to the diagrams used by Fitbug on its website.” The logos of the company, while different, both had blue dots over the letter “i”, and both companies used silhouettes of people exercising on their website. Looking at the example, we wonder if Apple should be suing both of them.
While many of these complaints may have some merit, the most outlandish statement is that there are only two letters differentiating Fitbug from Fitbit. Looked at another way, one could say that Fitbit is 33% different from Fitbug.
Seeing how long it took Fitbug to file the lawsuit leads us to believe that the company is desperately trying to keep up with their main competitor and falling behind. According to their website, there is only one available product (the Air), although there are three other devices available for preorder. In addition, Fitbug only supports Apple devices, whereas Fitbit supports iOS, Android, and has recently announced that a Windows Phone 8 app is on the way.
Source: Press release | Images from Fitbug
6 Comments - Add comment