In a report today, on the Sydney Morning Herald site, Apple Inc. and Woolworths AU are reportedly going to battle it out over the use of Woolworths new logo. The same logo is to be implemented here in NZ when Progressive merge Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown into the one Countdown brand all around the country.

[update] – There is no lawsuit as yet. The Trademark has been applied for and IP Australia have reviewed it and so it gets moved to the next stage in the process where it is published for other companies to review and potentially oppose….it’s not a lawsuit, and there’s no judge or jury, just the trademark examiner. [via Engadget]

By the sounds of things one of the big drivers for the law suit is that the Trademark for the new logo is a blanket Trademark allowing them to put the logo on everything and anything, which includes electrical items, computers, cell phones etc etc. Although the company doesn’t currently have computers on their line up it is not out of the realm of opportunity. A Woolworths spokesman said: ”While we can’t rule anything out, we haven’t got any plans…

We have just received an email from the press secretary to Steven Joyce, Minister of Transport, in response to an email we sent to Andrew Knackstedt of the NZ Transport Agency this morning. In it, we have received confirmation that the Road User Amendment Rules 2009 is to be amended to allow the continued use of GPS Navigation apps in mobiles phones.

In our email to Mr Knackstedt this morning we posed the following questions:

1) Why does the ministry consider that using good quality turn-by-turn GPS navigation aids on a mobile device such as an iPhone represents more of a hazard than a dedicated GPS unit such as a TomTom, Navman etc. despite their implementation and use being almost exactly identical?

2) Is there evidence to support this belief by way of investigations / studies / reports? What research has the government done prior to the introduction of this particular facet of the legislation?

3) Why has the government continued to allow the sale of devices with this functionality built-in, and the sale of add-on applications specifically for this purpose despite intending to ban their  use?

4) Does the government plan to ban the sale / purchase of such

…

According to an article on stuff.co.nz this morning, the Ministry of Transport’s Road User Amendment Rule 2009 which will become law in November, will outlaw the use of satellite navigation apps on mobile phones, even if it is mounted to the dashboard.

[jump to petition]

The article quotes Transport Ministry spokesman John Summers as saying “The Road User Amendment Rule 2009 means drivers will not be able to look at a navigation aid on a mobile phone when driving, even if it is mounted on the dashboard. You can use a mobile phone held in a cradle while driving, but only to make, receive or terminate a phone call. You cannot use them in any other way, such as reading a GPS map, reading email or consulting an electronic diary.”

Want some salt for that wound? While the government is adamant your copy of TomTom or Sygic for iPhone is going to wreck lives and kill people, it is perfectly happy for you to have a dedicated Sat Nav unit. It’s also perfectly happy for you to put a paper map on the passenger seat and have you glance down at that.

We’re…