Subj : Apple, the company, wants to trademark images of apple, the fruit
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Mon Jun 19 2023 15:00:04

Apple, the company, wants to trademark images of apple, the fruit

Date:
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 13:49:05 +0000

Description:
Apple demonstrates a bizarre power trip as the company tries to trademark 
images of apples in Switzerland.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

Apple is trying to flex its legal muscles and worldwide influence to gain 
intellectual property rights over depictions of apples - thats right, the 
fruit. 

In Switzerland, the Fruit Union Suisse uses a symbol of a red apple with a 
white cross - the Swiss national flag superimposed onto an apple, in other 
words. The group has over a hundred years of history and is now worried it 
may have to change its logo due to Apples insistence on trademarking fruit. 

 Wired points out that this is actually not an isolated incident - but rather 
that Apple has made similar demands to IP authorities around the world with 
varying degrees of success. Authorities in Japan, Turkey, Israel, and Armenia 
have previously caved to the tech giants frankly unreasonable requests. An 
apple a day ... 

According to Jimmy Marithoz, Director of the Fruit Union Suisse, the union 
has not been pleased with the tech giants request, because its not like 
theyre trying to protect their bitten apple. 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. 

Its true that FUSs logo indeed lacks the iconic bite taken out of it, as seen 
in Apples own logo. Apples quest to own the IP rights to something as 
universally generic as an actualpiece of fruit speaks volumes to the 
company's sense of self-importance, and the assumption that because its the 
Apple, one of the biggest tech firms in the world, it can simply bully 
government organizations into doing as it pleases. 

These current efforts to secure a trademark in Switzerland go as far back as 
2017, when Apple submitted an application to the Swiss Institute of 
Intellectual Property requesting IP rights for a realistic, black-and-white 
depiction of a Granny Smith apple - a very generic apple, in other words. The 
request covered a multitude of uses like electronic, digital, and consumer 
goods. The request was denied but Apple has launched an appeal this year .



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-the-company-wants-to-trademark-images-of-
apple-the-fruit


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)

.