Apple is taking its fight for trademarks to a whole new level this time. The Cupertino giant is at loggerheads with the Fruit Union Suisse, an association that has been promoting the interests of Swiss fruit growers for over 100 years now. The fight is over latter’s latest logo that features a red apple with a white Swiss cross superimposed on it. The tech giant is trying to gain trademark rights over depictions of apples in Switzerland.
“We have a hard time understanding this, because it’s not like they’re trying to protect their bitten apple,” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariéthoz told The Wired. “Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal … that should be free for everyone to use.”
Apple’s quest for apple fruit isn’t new. The company in 2017 filed an application with the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) to trademark a realistic, black-and-white depiction of a Granny Smith apple. The application covered a variety of use cases, including electronic, digital, and audiovisual consumer goods and hardware.
Apple is concerned that the Fruit Union Suisse’s current logo could be confused with its own as it looks similar to the one Apple used before 2017. The tech company fears that the two logos are visually similar and that they could cause confusion in the minds of consumers. Fruit Union Suisse uses a Red apple in the logo but Apple has argued that in Black and White depiction, the logo of Fruit Union Suisse could look similar to its logo.
Apple’s case against the Fruit Union Suisse is just one example of the growing trend of companies aggressively protecting their trademarks. This trend has raised concerns about the future of trademarks and the potential for companies to suppress competition by claiming ownership of broad concepts or ideas.
It is still too early to say what the long-term impact of this trend will be. However, it is clear that companies are becoming increasingly aware of the value of trademarks and are willing to fight for them. This could lead to a more debatable environment in the future, as companies battle over the ownership of valuable trademarks.
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