A DAVID and Goliath-type showdown is brewing between an Esperance farmer and tech giant Apple over the use of the letter 'i' in the name of his agtech start-up.
Mic Fels, who is also the WAFarmers grains section president, launched the first of the iPaddock suite of apps, including iPaddock Yield, iPaddock Spray and iPaddock Rain in 2012.
The apps are designed to be used for farm management and record keeping and have been retailed via the Apple app store since they were launched without incident.
However, when Mr Fels attempted to trademark the iPaddock name in 2018, he received a letter from Apple stating it opposed the application on the grounds the name of the app was too similar to Apple products such as the iPod and iPad.
Mr Fels said the tech company's argument was that the similarity in the names caused confusion.
"They seem to think that people will think my product is endorsed by Apple, but I can tell you no one had ever rung me up to buy an iPhone," Mr Fels said.
"I've been toing and froing with Apple for some time now trying to reach an agreement which suits both parties.
"We offered to do a full rebrand, to change the look of everything, really highlight the word paddock and at first they seemed quite agreeable to that, but then they weren't and wanted me to remove the 'i'."
While some have suggested he could save himself the drama and change the name, Mr Fels said it was not that simple.
"'i' is known around the world for meaning information and paddock is a very Australian term, which was deliberate," he said.
"I've spent the past 10 year of my life rebuilding this brand, going to three or four field days a year."
"I've earned the value in the brand and it might be the end of iPaddock if I have to change the name because it's not viable if I have to start from scratch again."
However, the Esperance grower is now not fighting the battle alone and has the support of the Twitter community behind him.
After he made a post detailing the legal drama and asking Apple to pick on someone their own size, people around the country started changing their handles on the social media platform to include an 'i' at the front.
"It made my day seeing people changing their Twitter handles," Mr Fels said.
"It was so kind of them and it made me laugh, what a classic thing for Aussies to do."
Mr Fels said he was due to have a hearing within the next couple of months.
"Things are getting real and I'm looking down the barrel of a $50,000 hearing to defend the trademark registration and that will just be the start of it," he said.
"If we win, I know Apple will appeal because they've got the resources, but I'm not looking too far ahead.
"I'm just determined to defend the application and put as much pressure on Apple as I can to be reasonable about it."
Farm Weekly sought comment from Apple but the company declined to respond.