Apple is taking the use of a fruit logo SERIOUSLY. On March 25, 2020, Apple filed a Notice of Opposition against the applicant Super Healthy Kids, Inc.’s mark, a stylized bold outline of a pear (App. Ser. No. 87/315,348) for a meal planner app in Trademark Class 042 “Non-downloadable software, namely, an application for organizing and planning meals, for evaluating the nutritional content of meals, for creating a searchable database of recipes, and for managing the purchase of recipe ingredients,” and Trademark Class 045 “On-line social networking in the field of cooking, food and nutrition.” Apple asserts this fruit-based logo is too similar to the Apple trademark. Of course, they also argued that the iconic Apple has become so famous and recognizable that similarities would confuse the ordinary consumer and dilute the Apple mark.
Apple has a history of going after dozens of applicants with the word “APPLE” incorporated in their trademarks and with an apple image in their trademarks.
Recently, Apple took even greater steps to protect themselves by filing an additional Notice of Opposition of the applicant’s application in Canada. This doubling-down on litigation increases the cost of litigation for Prepear, which the small five-person team has stated was “a clear sign that Apple is doubling down on their fight against all fruit.” Shortly after this initial news broke, a petition started circulating to demand Apple drop their lawsuit with over 225,000 signatories.
Instead of changing their logo, Prepear has decided to take a stand against Apple to make it clear large companies may not bully smaller businesses. Read their blog post here.
What do you think? Would you be confused by these two marks? Do you think it’s fair of Apple to oppose any fruit trademarks?
– Article by Carissa Chow