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Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

wired.com

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Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#51

Post by ilyt »

hu3 wrote: post #6

> THE FRUIT UNION Suisse is 111 years old. For most of its history, it has had as its symbol a red apple with a white cross—the Swiss national flag superimposed on one of its most common fruits. But the group, the oldest and largest fruit farmer’s organization in Switzerland, worries it might have to change its logo, because Apple, the tech giant, is trying to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of appl…

> What is Apple going to do next? Try to get a patent on rounded corners for rectangular electronic devices?

For those that haven't seen it

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/3614506/apple-patents-rec...

yes, they actually did.

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#52

Post by ilyt »

bertil wrote: post #49
Varqu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a penalty for such bogus trademark claims, best as % of the global revenue. Then, maybe, they would learn that a corporation cannot bully others only because it has unlimited legal resources.

Those proceedings are expensive, and I can’t imagine Apple expects to win. I suspect it’s one of those proceedings that they feel compelled to run because they expect to lose the value of their trademark if they don’t. To me, it sounds like airlines flying empty because they wanted to keep their airport slot: give them a guarantee that they’ll keep their spot and they’ll be happy not to waste fuel and pilot hours on…

> Those proceedings are expensive, and I can’t imagine Apple expects to win. I suspect it’s one of those proceedings that they feel compelled to run because they expect to lose the value of their trademark if they don’t.

Or bleed other side out of money till they yield

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#54

Post by colejohnson66 »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #28
colejohnson66 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trademarks, unlike copyright, are "use and protect it or lose it". There's no "expiry" date on them like copyrighted things have because brands sometimes live for over a hundred years. Letting someone take your companies name and logo just because you're "too old" isn't fair. This is because trademarks, unlike copyright, aren't about science and innovation; they're about preventing consumer confusion. Not protecting…

Trademarks are limited to the trades (i.e. 'goods& services') listed in the trademark application. Apple, Inc doesn't sell apples. Nor do they have apple farms. Visit USPTO's TESS and search for serial number 87628828. The "Goods and Services" field contains no mention of fruit, farms, or produce. You must diligently protect your trademark against uses by others in similar markets. I would hope that protecting your c…

That is true. That argument also got Apple Records off Apple's back in the old days; they weren't in the music business (until they did with iTunes and were sued again). I think the lawyers are being too ambitious with this lawsuit, and will lose, but my comment was just clarifying why lawyers would bring such a case.

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#55

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

k4rli wrote: post #29

Unfortunate how regular and even IT people don't care how evil and anti-consumer this company is. And still getting more popular somehow.

"Hey, don't criticize my favorite trillion dollar corporation. I give them thousands of my dollars a year."

- HN

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#56

Post by Tagbert »

hu3 wrote: post #6

> THE FRUIT UNION Suisse is 111 years old. For most of its history, it has had as its symbol a red apple with a white cross—the Swiss national flag superimposed on one of its most common fruits. But the group, the oldest and largest fruit farmer’s organization in Switzerland, worries it might have to change its logo, because Apple, the tech giant, is trying to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of appl…

It was widely derided at the time because most people don’t have much experience with design patents.

Like many companies, Apple typically files a design patent for their products. This gives them some leverage when going after clone products. Those designs typically include drawings and descriptions of the product. The description for the iPad included the phrase “a rectangle with rounded corners”. In the context of a design patent, that means a particular rectangle with specific rounded corners as illustrated in the accompanying diagrams. Someone read that and started posting that Apple was patenting all rectangles with rounded corners. That meme took off much faster than any more mundane explanations of what the patent actually covered.

In practice, the patent was not enough to prevent Samsung from launching a tablet with rounded corners that looked suspiciously similar to an iPad.

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#57

Post by piva00 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #45
sashank_1509 wrote: post #8

The kind of ridiculous situation that arises when a company is drowning in money with no idea what to do about it. Make work for lawyers, Make work for engineers, share buybacks, no good vision on how to spend the money

At some point, every company's "how to spend the money" has to turn into "give it back to the shareholders and let them seed more ideas". Infinite growth is pretty impossible.

We can thank Jack Welch for making it popular to consider shareholders as the most important cohort of people to be rewarded when a business goes well... His way of managing businesses completely infests MBA programs around the world.

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#58

Post by pdntspa »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #42
pdntspa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how 'give more of it to employees' and 'lower prices' aren't really in the vocabulary

In their defense, most Apple employees are paid in stocks and share buybacks likely increases their compensation more than directly increasing their compensation.

Are rank-and-file (not engineering) employees of Apple compensated in enough stock that buybacks are really worth that much? I highly doubt it. And even then, until those shares are sold they are subject to the whims of the market. Paper millionaire status doesn't mean shit if you can barely afford to pay rent.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush...

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#59

Post by swores »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #42
pdntspa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how 'give more of it to employees' and 'lower prices' aren't really in the vocabulary

In their defense, most Apple employees are paid in stocks and share buybacks likely increases their compensation more than directly increasing their compensation.

Considering many shareholders are not employees, how could giving money (/increasing share price through stock buybacks) for shareholders affect employees compensation more than directly giving it to the employees?

Re: Apple wants rights to the image of apples in Switzerland

#60

Post by rhyme-boss »

pdntspa wrote: post #32
sashank_1509 wrote: post #8

The kind of ridiculous situation that arises when a company is drowning in money with no idea what to do about it. Make work for lawyers, Make work for engineers, share buybacks, no good vision on how to spend the money

Funny how 'give more of it to employees' and 'lower prices' aren't really in the vocabulary

Or 'pay taxes'
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