YahooPhone
On February 5, 2008, wireless phone developer Hop-on, Inc. filed to protect the trademarks YahooPhone and YPhone in relation to “telephones, cellular and mobile telephones, and apparatus, connectors, chargers, holders and headsets for the foregoing”.
Does Yahoo! have a deal with Hop-on (HPNN) to develop a cellphone? While Hop-on does have recent phone deals with AT&T and Verizon and a recent letter of intent for $60M worth of their phones, the company and its founder Peter Michaels seem to have a history of trademark disputes and patent disputes as well as stock fraud and lawsuits.
Hop-on made headlines back in 2002 when it announced that it would be manufacturing the world’s first disposable cell phones, which ended up being nothing more than old Nokia phones with new casing. More recently, the company threatened carriers, mobile manufacturers, and major retailers in the US with royalty demands based on a design patent for some widely-used mobile phone functions including button and speaker placement.
Mork’s going to hop-off this story while the hoppin’s good.
