Apple’s logo obsession could have drastic real world consequences
What do a small design firm in Minneapolis, an organisation that supports families of children with autism, an indie band, a non-profit in Arkansas that teaches dyslexic children how to read? They’ve all been targeted by Apple for potential trademark infringements.
A report last year from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that “Apple’s trademark aggression is unparalleled in the tech industry. Over a three-year period, Apple filed 215 trademark oppositions, more than Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook combined (136)”. Many of those were against small businesses and non-profit organisations.
For example, when Indie band Applewhite applied to trademark its name, Apple objected and the band was forced to give up because it did not have the resources to fight the tech giant. Apple had claimed people could be confused into thinking that Applewhite’s music was somehow made by or affiliated with the company. But as the TTP notes, Apple doesn’t release music under its own name and has no qualms about carrying music by Fiona Apple.
All of which brings us to the incredible story of a fruit farmer’s organisation in Switzerland: The Fruit Union Suisse. As reported in Wired, the 111 year old body fears it may have to change its logo because of the trademark actions of a company that’s 64 years younger. The logo in question uses a red apple with an inlaid white cross, which is intended to emulate the colours of the Swiss national flag.
Most people might find it hard to comprehend how an ‘upstart’ US tech company could be in a position to force a much older organisation in a completely different market in another country to change its logo. But as Wired notes, the cause is Apple’s efforts “to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of apples, the fruit”.
The relevant trademark filing at the World Intellectual Property Organization shows a black and white rendition of a Granny Smith which, as everyone familiar with Apple knows, is not representative of the company’s logo at all. If anything, it is reminiscent of a black and white version of the logo for Apple Records, the Beatles’ record label. Those of you with longish memories will remember there was a long running, multi-episode copyright battle between the music company and Apple which ended peacefully in 2007 when the tech company gained ownership of all the trademarks related to ‘Apple’.
Apple submitted a trademark application in Switzerland based on the black and white Granny Smith in 2017. Five years later, the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) granted Apple limited rights to some of the goods it wanted, upholding the principle that it should not be possible to trademark generic images of common goods. Apple has since appealed.
The concern for organisations like the Fruit Union Suisse is that Apple may gain rights over any visual representation of an apple.
“That would be a very, very big restriction for us,” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariéthoz told Wired. “Theoretically, we could be entering slippery territory every time we advertise with an apple.”
It should be noted that Apple’s filing with the WIPO appears confined mainly to music, films and video, suggesting it could be a real stretch to apply it to logos for companies with no involvement in any of those spheres.
Still there’s something bemusing about seeing Apple, a company which featured Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree in its first short-lived logo, seeking to defy gravity by gaining wide-ranging ownership over how any company, organisation, band or non-profit can depict an apple. Slightly more worrying is that, in some places, it seems to be succeeding.
According to the words of an old sentimental song from the 70s: “God didn’t make the little green apples”. Then again, neither did Apple.
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