Lawsuit launched over iPhone beer programs
If you own an iPhone, you may have heard of a program called iBeer, which allows you to swish around a virtual beer on your phone’s screen. You can even pretend to take a sip of the beer by tipping the phone backward. Made by a small company called Hottrix, iBeer has become one of the most-loved programs in the iPhone community.
Well, large corporate brewer Molson Coors decided it wanted a piece of the action. They couldn’t successfully negotiate with Hottrix to license the software, so they created their own program, iPint, which looks and feels very, very similar to iBeer. Molson Coors claims it is not the same as iBeer, because iPint swishes a beer called Carling around, rather than iBeer’s micro-brew.
The iPint program is especially hurting iBeer’s sales because Molson Coors is giving iPint away to iPhone users who watch a Carling ad. Hottrix charges $3 for iBeer.
So, not surprisingly, Hottrix has sued Molson Coors. It remains to be seen if the tiny company can take down the Goliath that is Molson Coors in the courts. Intellectual property meets beer.
