In a real-life comparison of Apples and oranges, Apple convinced the EU Intellectual Property Office to partially refuse to grant a trademark, all for being too close to Apple’s logo.
Apple’s lawsuits cover a lot of important and dull areas, such as patent infringement. However, sometimes Apple’s litigious activities can go in some quite unusual directions.
The latest was Apple’s objection to a trademark filing in the EU from keyboard maker Yichun Qinningmeng Electronics Co. MacRumors reports Apple told the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that the Chinese keyboard company’s logo was too close in design to Apple’s logo.
Instead of an Apple, the offending logo was of a circular citrus with a single leaf on the top, as well as the removal of a section to the right-hand side. In the middle of the fruit were segments and squares resembling keys on a keyboard.
The EUIPO was told by Apple that the citrus looked like an apple, because it was a fruit with a leaf and a bitemark. The EUIPO disagreed, as it looked like an orange thanks to its mostly-circular shape, as well as the triangular shapes looking like segments and not really Apple-like.
However, the EUIPO did agree that, while there were many differences, there were still some similarities. They could be considered “visually similar, albeit to a very low degree.”
That said, the EUIPO still sided with Apple on the matter. Apple’s reputation in the EU was a major factor, and consumers could look at the orange and make a “mental link” between the two companies.
The EUIPO agreed with Apple that the orange logo was probably an attempt to use Apple’s goodwill for its own purposes. Since Yichun Quinningmeng could come up with products that are similar or identical to Apple’s in the future, consumers could “wrongly assume” a connection with Apple itself.
It is a partial success for Apple, but a big one, as it has stopped the citrus from being used as a trademark in the EU for computer goods. However, the EUIPO still allowed the application to continue in use with solar panels.
The EU wasn’t the only venue for the trademark fight, as there was a similar one occurring in the United States. In that instance, Yichun Quinningmeng failed to oppose the complaint, effectively giving up the battle.
Logo wrangling
This is far from the first time Apple has taken on other entities in trademark fights over logo designs.
In 2019, it objected to a logo for the Norwegian Progress Party, which used an image of an apple with an F motif in the middle.
In 2023, it continued a six-year fight against Fruit Union Suisse, which depicted a red apple with a white cross. The union used the image for many years previously, but updated the design in 2011 to celebrate its 100th year of existence.
Like the latest incident, the fights have also included other forms of fruit.
In 2020, Apple objected to a pear logo used by the Prepear app. The app revised the design slightly in 2021, after entering settlement negotiations.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
