MacMerc Exclusive-- News broke yesterday afternoon that TigerDirect, a Florida based electronics retailer filed suit against Apple for using the name Tiger for 10.4. According to the lawsuit, which was obtained by MacMerc, Tiger Direct believes that with the 10.4 release, Apple has willfuly infringed upon Tiger Direct's trademarks surrounding the name Tiger. Tiger Direct went so far as to ask the court to stop the sale of Tiger (just days before was set to launch), but that motion was denied. A hearing has been set for Tuesday.

Despite the apparent bad blood between the two companies, TigerDirect sells a range of iPods. The curious timing of the lawsuit appears to be for publicity, the cat name for 10.4 has not been secret for a very long time (depending on the outcome of this case, Longhorn Steakhouse may have a good case when Microsoft finally ships Longhorn).

Below are links to the papers filed with the court in Miami, FL. Even without a law degree, it's an interesting read. All files are in PDF format, so prepare to whip out Preview or Adobe Reader for best results.