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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

#161

Post by tpmoney »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #5
Springtime wrote: post #2

Was puzzling they didn't include an image of said logo[1]. IIRC I've observed this for some other articles in the past covering trademark disputes. Is there a common reason they might do this? [1] https://www.swissfruit.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sov_new...

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…

>Some lawyer at Apple probably caught wind of this Swedish company and took action. It's really that simple.

It's not even that. There's no action being taken here other than Apple appealing the provisional denial of a trademark registration for the Apple Records logo in the trade domain of music and related multi media. The Swiss government approved one of two logos, and Apple is trying to get the other approved. That's it. No "action" against any Swiss companies. Every bit of the article talking about Apple conflicting with the fruit union is 100% hypothetical speculation.

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

#163

Post by tpmoney »

freedomben wrote: post #113
anigbrowl wrote: post #107

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.

Do you truthfully think that Apple the computer company is at risk in the US (or anywhere for that matter) of losing their trademark if they don't go after a union of fruit growers in a completely different market with a logo that is not in any way confusing to consumers? No doubt what you say is true for some infrigement cases and should be blamed on US trademark jurisprudence, and the US does badly need reform of I…

Apple isn't going after anyone. They're registering a trademark for the Apple Records logo in the trade domain of music and related media. That's it. There's no conflict here other than hypotheticals made up for the article.

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

#164

Post by tpmoney »

elp wrote: post #21

I'm not a lawyer but I would have thought the fruit union food trademark would be in a different trademark class to Apple's computer trademark accoring to the WIPO Nice list. ( https://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/nclpub/en/fr/help/ ) Would this have any chance or are Apple just planning to bludgeon the other side with lawyers until they run out of money?

They're not bludgeoning anyone. They applied for a trademark registration for one of their marks, it was denied and they are appealing that denial. That's all that's going on. The rest of the article the hypothetical "what if"

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

#167

Post by rendang »

malfist wrote: post #143
azinman2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do other forms of government not rape the land, build industry, dump chemicals and pollutants, etc? Not sure the history of North Korea, China, Soviet Union, etc is an environmentalist paradise.

This is a form of "whataboutism" Just because some countries' governments are as bad as some corporations, does not mean either should get a free pass, or that corporations are not at fault for what they do.

The GP comment opposed capitalism in general. If you want to get rid of capitalism, that implies you have to replace it with something better

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

#168

Post by ben_w »

survirtual wrote: post #147
ben_w wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patents fit your rhetoric, but trademarks protect customers from rip-off merchants who, to create a relevant example, will take the insides of an Android phone, build an iPhone-shaped form around it, re-skin the OS to be like iOS, and then sell it as "an iPhone". This is still the case even though Apple is obviously wrong here.

Except rip offs happen regularly still with little intervention, and giant corps use trademarks frivolously even when they know it's wrong, because they have deeper pockets and can litigate small companies out of business regardless of the merit of claims. How anyone can own the likeness of a fruit that has existed for millions of years is beyond my understanding. "Google" -- an invented word that did not exist prior…

> Except rip offs happen regularly still with little intervention

As with spam, what you see is what gets past the filter; the actual attempted rate is much higher, and gets goods seized at customs when C&Ds aren't enough.

As for "this is ridiculous": yes, that's why Apple lost the case it's here appealing.

But Apple also used to regularly lose to the other Apple Corp. because trademarks are separated by domain and the music company wanted to make sure the computer company never did music. Eventually they paid a lot of money and agreed to stop fighting.

https://youtu.be/kAG39jKi0lI

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

#169

Post by makeitdouble »

Tagbert wrote: post #56
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…

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

I'd suspect they let it slide because it was Samsung, more than anything ?

Patents are a tougher deal when you opponent has the war chess to fight you to the bitter end.

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

#170

Post by makeitdouble »

foooorsyth wrote: post #26
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

>no good vision Interesting choice of words given their new product announcement a few weeks back at WWDC.

They also had a memorable "Can't innovate anymore, my ass!" moment at a past WWDC . I'm firmly waiting for an actual product in stores and people using it in their living room to judge on Apple's vision.
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