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This probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise, but British television network ITV has responded to the rumor that Apple plans to rename the Apple TV as... iTV. Now, Apple's no stranger to using names which are already trademarked -- if you'll recall, Fujitsu used to own iPad and Cisco owned iPhone before Apple took... care of all of that with its gigantic piles of money. Well, someone at ITV is apparently not pleased to hear that iTV is one of the next Apple products, with a report in The Mirror this morning citing unnamed sources which described its executives as "furious," and hints that litigation is not out of the realm of possibility. Pocket Lint's contacted an ITV spokesperson for a more official take on the matter, and ITV's director of Communications, Mike Large, says that ITV has a "strong brand" with a "highly valued IP," that ITV is a household name in the UK, and that it has "vigorously defended" its IP in the past. Of course, assuming Apple does go ahead with the iTV name, it could always choose to call it something else in the UK, and it's also worth noting that ITV has been fighting to gain the US mark for the name since at least 2006, and has so far failed to do so. While ITV seems to have done a pretty good job at dodging any direct questions about lawsuits, it's pretty clear that the network wants to let everyone know from the outset that they're not going to ignore this one.

British network ITV responds to Apple iTV rumor, says it has 'vigorously defended' its IP before originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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