Tech giant Apple has filed a lawsuit in Switzerland seeking intellectual property rights over a depiction of an apple. This is not a depiction of an apple with bite marks and a human creation (trademarked, of course) like Apple’s stylized logo, but the actual apple, nature’s bounty, and the world. A depiction of one of the most ubiquitous fruits, the one that grows. We eat on the tree.
All of this might seem a little crazy to you, a sane person, because it certainly is. The test bed for this strange battle is Switzerland, and the central disagreement is likely with the Fruit Union Switzerland, a venerable fruit producers association that has been around for some 111 years.thank you wired). And do you know what those despicable Swiss peasants went and did? About 100 years ago they devised the symbol of a white cross on a red apple (i.e. the design of the Swiss flag), a blatant disregard for the rights of companies that would be founded on another continent about 50 years later. It was what I did.
Apple first attempted to trademark a depiction of an apple in 2017, submitting a realistic black-and-white depiction of Granny Smith (usually green) to the Swiss Intellectual Property Institute. The application covers a range of uses for images, and while the Swiss Intellectual Property Institute didn’t give Apple everything it wanted, most others, citing the legal doctrine on common images of common items, While denying the use of , it granted some rights. The latter denial is what Apple currently strips of policy.
I’m sorry, I won’t do it again. If you’re wondering why the opposition is making a fuss about trademarking a fairly common image of an apple, it’s because if Apple can get this, it’s basically a legal Because it gives the company something of a club. Any color with similar shape is fine. Because an apple is an apple…
This is exactly why the company is butting horns with Fruit Union Switzerland, which naturally takes the position that people should be free to use generic images of apples in their products. ing. sell apples.
“It’s hard to understand because they’re not trying to protect a bitten apple,” said Jimmy Mariesos, director of Fruit Union Switzerland. “Their real purpose here is to own the rights to the actual apples.
Amen, Jimmy. Unfortunately, Wired’s report details a series of similar trademark filings Apple made for apples in other countries, including Armenia, Israel, Japan, and Turkey. It is famous for protecting intellectual property rights. Fruit Union Switzerland needs to prove that the apple image has been used before, which it believes it should be able to do, but it will take months before a decision is made.
