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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

#101

Post by AlexandrB »

survirtual wrote: post #93
myshpa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, just abolish patents and trademarks.

Patents and trademarks are a relic from the past that drastically suppresses innovation and puts technological advancement into slow motion, turning corporate moats into islands flying in the sky with forcefields of lawyers and bureaucracy, and enables a whole market of bad-faith parasites. There is no good-faith argument for their existence. They hurt the general populace for the benefit of some tiny minority of meg…

A world without patents isn't necessarily one where corporations are any less of moats. Instead I'd expect a lot more secrecy and obfuscation measures to prevent successful reverse engineering of products and far more onerous employment contracts to stop leaks.

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

#102

Post by NikkiA »

tough wrote: post #84
colejohnson66 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lawyers get paid regardless of the outcome. Is on their best interest to bring as many frivolous loosing lawsuits as Apple is willing to pay for.

Corporate lawyers also get paid whether they file lawsuits or not, so no, it's not really in their interests to file frivolous lawsuits.

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

#103

Post by tpmoney »

izacus wrote: post #14
bkishan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no good vision Ah yes, years of continuing technical and product innovations, with "no good vision"

Attacking fruit sellers is not "a vision".

Good thing they’re not attacking anyone then. They’re very clearly from the linked application in the article trying to register a trademark for a very long standing trademark that they now own within the realm of trade that said trademark has been traditionally used. That is, they’re trying to register the Apple Records (of the Beatles fame) logo as a trademark in the realm of music and related multi-media.

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

#104

Post by anigbrowl »

survirtual wrote: post #93
myshpa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, just abolish patents and trademarks.

Patents and trademarks are a relic from the past that drastically suppresses innovation and puts technological advancement into slow motion, turning corporate moats into islands flying in the sky with forcefields of lawyers and bureaucracy, and enables a whole market of bad-faith parasites. There is no good-faith argument for their existence. They hurt the general populace for the benefit of some tiny minority of meg…

So what happens when yo invent/create a thing, attempt to commercialize it, and an established corporation just rips you off because there's no barrier to doing so?

You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Please don't deflect to some other issue (notwithstanding its validity) you don't have an answer for the question.

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

#105

Post by Manheim »

jeroen wrote: post #33
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…

Their logo: https://www.swissfruit.ch/wp-content/themes/dudapress/dist/a...

Looks like it is another stupid unscrupulous gang of lawyers and accountants who have no ethical or moral views that are exploiting laws and regulations to gain more power. I have no respect for brands that behaves in this way

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

#106

Post by rdlw »

TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #44
CivBase wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kidding. I'd love to see the bigger company loose their logo in one of these petty trademark disputes someday.

It happened when McDonalds tried to trademark Mc in the European Union. They lost out to Irish company Supermacs.

This is not what happened, they had the trademark for "Big Mac". They took Supermac's to court because their name was too similar, and ended up losing the trademark.

For a while Burger King Sweden was selling burgers using the name, apparently the "Anything But a Big Mac", "Burger Big Mac Wished it Was", etc.

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

#107

Post by anigbrowl »

Wired knows better. Apple is required by US trademark law to file pro forma objections to other similar logos because if they don't, they can be accused of constructive abandonment' of their own mark which will drastically limit their ability to seek recourse against genuine infringement.

The problem here is not Apple, but the perverse incentives in US trademark jurisprudence.

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

#108

Post by tpmoney »

krono wrote: post #46
Retric wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which isn’t what’s happening. A fruit seller has a hypothetical concern over a trademark application, which is how you turn a non story into a story on a slow news day.

Apple is manoeuvring itself into a position where it could Without any other reasonable explanation for why it should Except for the one of which Fruit Union is afraid it would

No other explanation except that they’re registering a very specific logo which they are now the owners of but has been used in trade since the 60s within the domain of trade relating to the historical use of that trademark (that is music and related media). You know, exactly the sort of thing you might expect the owner of a trademark to do in all the relevant legal jurisdictions where it might be using that mark in trade

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

#109

Post by rdlw »

mcv wrote: post #70
TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened when McDonalds tried to trademark Mc in the European Union. They lost out to Irish company Supermacs.

Sadly they're still called McDonalds here.

Losing a trademark just means that it's not protected, and anyone can use it. Burger King Sweden was directly making fun of the Big Mac in their menu for a while after this case, since they could do it legally.

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

#110

Post by freedomben »

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.

As someone who actively avoids products from companies with practices I find distasteful or disgusting, even though I would benefit from and enjoy those products, this fact is one of the most frustrating for me. "Vote with your dollars" is a powerful and highly effective strategy for making companies do the right things, but it only works if people are willing to make choices with consideration for morality/ethics/etc rather than selfishness (I don't necessarily mean that derogatorily, I mostly just mean "what's better for them").

For many things (such as cheap Chinese goods made by people in a labor camp) I think the economic realities of people having limited money are powerful (and legitimate) enough that it may not be reasonable to expect them to care, but with Apple products that's not the case. These are luxury products that are expensive, and the people who buy them could absolutely afford to buy an alternative. They just don't want to because they like or love the products and are willing to turn a blind eye about the companies practices (or invent/adopt crazy post-decision rationalisms churned out (or at least approved) from Apple's marketing department.

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