Have A Beer!

First of all, I have to warn you - this article involves talking about alcohol, so if you're below the legal drinking age, close the page now! Thank you very much! Now, let's get to one of the earthly pleasures I enjoy most - drinking beer. No, I am not an alcoholic, I simply enjoy the finest things in life - beer and heavy metal. And Apple(s), of course! Now, think about Apple, beer, and a lawsuit. Today we'll see how it is possible for these to come together...

Fortunately, this is not a lawsuit against Apple, but since it's about an iPhone app, I couldn't leave them out of this equation. The story goes like this - Coors has to face a $12.5 million lawsuit... for allegedly copying a $3 beer-drinking novelty application, and nothing more! So... what about this program? Well, the $3 app allows its users to drink a pint by tilting their iPhone. Unfortunately, it's only a virtual beer, but it's better than nothing, after all!

Hottrix, a small and funny company that develops beer and popcorn software tricks for the iPhone, amongst other "software gadgets," decided to file a lawsuit alleging that Coors commited copyright infringement by copying the iBeer app(interesting to see that Apple didn't blow up when seeing the "iBeer" name!). Both Hottrix's application and Coors' iPint display the image of a glass of beer on the iPhone's screen, which is emptied when a user tilts the handset about 90 degrees. Both apps arrived in the App Store on the 11th of July, only that iBeer was priced at $3, while iPint was free.

If you want to have a little bit of fun, you can go ahead and read the 12-page lawsuit. This is still far from being over, since Coors says they yet have to review the lawsuit, but be sure I'll get back to this matter. After all, it's about beer and the iPhone!