Apple wants to claim depictions of actual apples.

  • utg@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Would be funny if they can successfully counter-sue apple to stop using their logo

  • fear@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This just in, Apple sues the estate of 2000+ year old man for his depiction of an apple in Genesis, the popular and riveting first book in the collaborative effort written 2 millennia ago: The Bible.

    I reached out to Apple’s PR representative, I’ll let you know if they get back to me.

    • pushka@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Actually Moses was VERY prudent, and strategically didn’t use the exact word ‘apple’ only ‘fruit’ and ‘of the tree’ - because he knew apple would be a litigious bitch


      Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

      And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

      But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

      And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

      For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

      • fear@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Apple’s PR representative stated:

        If all apples are fruit, and all fruit are of a tree, then surely all fruit of a tree are apples. The world needs to understand that every fruit is our intellectual property now. We’ve earned that place with our iconic innovation. We’re currently in talks with Fruit of the Loom, and our team is confident that they will rebrand as ‘Of the Loom’. It’s a fresh, modern take for their products that will be mutually beneficial to both parties.

        I reached out to Fruit of the Loom’s PR representative, nothing yet.

  • rowinofwin@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    This reminds me of the Big Mac decision. I can’t remember where but there was a burger place that had a Big Mac burger but the name was not a copy of the McDonalds one, it was iirc because the owner’s name was Mac. Anyway, they lost the case and therefore lost copyright protection on Big Mac, so Hungry Jacks/Burger King started renaming all their burgers to something something big Mac, just to mess with them. Maybe Apple will bite of more than they can chew and end up losing protection for the Apple logo or similar things.

    • Uriel238@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      McDonald’s is notorious for suing any food-related company with a name starting with Mc or Mac, for trademark infringement. McDonald’s lost to McNally’s, a steakhouse in California, but I have to assume they’ve won enough to persist the policy.

      Although in the 2010s it was observed that copyright lawyers on retainer to movie studios and record companies were over-eager to report infringement to media platforms even when it was obviously unintentional and not useful for piracy (e.g. dancing baby videos.) And Disney has a long wretched tradition of suing daycare places for wall murals long before the internet.

      So this might be a matter of retained legal teams keeping themselves busy with overvigilence, since overenforcement makes such companies look like abusive dicks who deserve to be pirated (or worse, deserve to be not pirated).

  • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Leave it to “Android Authority” to throw a shit fit over a nothing story. Apple lost this application in 2017, and will almost certainly lose this appeal filed in April. Yes, it’s silly, but this article makes it sound like Apple is committing some sort of unspeakable crime, which it isn’t.

    Calm down, everyone.

    • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The crime that these corporations are committing is robbing the public of it’s own iconography, or trying to anyway.

      • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        hahahahahaha, hilarious.

        first of all, this isn’t a crime. second, nothing has happened yet-- and, even if the Swiss government rules in favor of Apple, they would be the ones to blame for allowing it. All Apple did was ask.

    • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The article tries to push the narrative that Apple is going after small family farms too, I doubt Apple even knows the farm exists. Not to mention under Swiss and basically every other trademark law they aren’t even allowed to trademark apples in general, it only grants its owner exclusive rights within a specific class of goods or services.

      The article is total ragebait.

    • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Except if it’s trying, then it is trying to commit a crime. If they lost, they lost. But, they’re back to try and steal it again.

      • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You obviously don’t understand the definition of the word “crime“. Causing you personal offense isn’t a “crime,” lol.

            • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              In my mind, it’s criminal to attack this company. I’m not a lawyer of course, but if they failed once and, are trying again, it shows how aggressive they are. I feel the other company should be able to sue Apple for their aggression and obvious false claim. When something is as clearly false as apple’s claim, then it really does fall into bullying, and again, in my mind, criminal activity. A serial corporate aggressor should be labelled criminal and I guess it’s up to the other company to see if they feel it’s worth suing to prove Apple are criminal or not, and I suspect with the sheer size of Apple, it probably won’t happen. Oh, and I have no problem calling them out for how their behaving. They’re bullying this company, they’re groundless in their false claims, and yes, they are assholes for it. Calling a company out for this kind of behaviour is pretty normal. Look at reddit right now.

              • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                i suggest you familiarize yourself with the definition of “crime”, and note that causing you personal offense is not part of that definition. And, since you have admitted that you’re not a lawyer, I find it pretty galling that you nonetheless process to make unfounded legal claims as if you were.

                • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  I’d suggest you take a course in socialising and people skills. Your responses to everyone on this topic are out of hand.

                  I’m not sure if you have a condition, and if you do I’m sorry to hear. I very much recommend social interaction training. Currently, you’re just coming across as an ass to everyone in this thread.

  • JiveTurkey@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Can companies just fuck off with this. Monster energy does the same thing. Also fuck Apple.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      We’re talking about Apple here. Apple is the company that tried to enforce a patent on a rectangle inside if another rectangle with rounded corners.

  • cthonctic@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Apple is a litigation company disguised as hardware sales. Steve “thermonuclear war” Jobs saw to this.

  • grte@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    If the article is accurate and Apple is trying to secure IP rights over, “images of apples,” surely no sane judge would rule in favour of such a wide ranging and foolish claim. I’m sure there are plenty of businesses who will be able to claim prior art over a picture of a damn apple.

    • pushka@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      They tried to sue Australian grocery-duopolly Woolworths for their apple/ pumpkin type W logo

      wollies applied for a blanket trademark - which would allow them to sell laptops with that logo on it, which would be kind of hilarious

  • OrangeCorvus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    OK this happens in Switzerland, yeah, I don’t think they have any chance. If it would have been in the US, maybe but in Europe, it’s a lot harder if you want to bully another company.

  • speaker_hat@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    I hope they’ll win, so everyone will understand how stupid and propriety our era is and there is nothing we can do about it, just stupid along with it.

  • Quentinp@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    What ever happened with Meta and the tech company that already existed called Meta? (Just remembered that now) edit: looks like they settled