Apple wants to claim depictions of actual apples.

  • JiveTurkey@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

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

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      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.

  • grte@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    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.

    Incidentally I’m trademarking the sun and then going after the entire country of Japan. I hope you aren’t too attached to that flag.

    • zik@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      A few years ago I tried to register a domain name which included the word “purple”. I was told I couldn’t because HP had trademarked the word “purple” so it was off the list of registerable words. I pointed out that my domain was in no way related to their purple laptops and I was told tough, no-one could for any reason register any domain which included the word “purple” because HP now owned the dictionary word “purple”.

      I’m still annoyed about it to this day.

      • Liz@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bullshit. They just don’t want to deal with the lawsuit even though HP would be 100% in the wrong. But we don’t have a justice system, just a legal system. If you got enough money you can make nearly anything the law.

  • utg@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

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

  • Quentinp@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    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

  • Rowin of Win@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    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.

    • Uriel-238@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      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).

  • Emi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    It isn’t even their logo, they are trying to copyright images of apples.

    “We have a hard time understanding this, because it’s not like they’re trying to protect their bitten apple,” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariéthoz was quoted as saying by the outlet. “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.”

      • somniumx@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        me come from a dymensyon where they succeded. Yt ys really trecky to wryte nowadays, at least ef you’re not owner of an i©phone™.

  • fear@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      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.

  • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    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.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Apple is forcing another company and the tax payers to waste time and money because they think they own the entire world. They should be barred from using the courts for any intellectual property matter because they keep abusing it.

    • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        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. Finally, that other company’s logo does not belong to the public-- it belongs to that other company. Where’s your outrage towards them?

        • Kresten@feddit.dk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          hahahahahaha, hilarious.

          It’s fine that you disagree, but can you at least try to not be condescending.

          • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            this isn’t some opinion over which there is a “disagreement”. it’s a matter of fact, and what was said was false. when someone makes a statement so ridiculously false, I cannot help but to laugh. Lies do not deserve respect.

            what I find curious is that you would criticize me for calling out the falsehood rather than the person making it.

            • SugarApplePie@beehaw.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I don’t think the commenter meant that Apple was literally committing an actual crime backed by a law lol

            • Kresten@feddit.dk
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I did not criticize you for calling something out. I criticized you going after the person by being condescending, it’s bad form in a discussion. Similar to pointing out spelling mistakes.

    • Emi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Important not from that article:

      It’s not the first time we’ve seen big tech companies attempt to trademark common terms or goods. However, a study by the Tech Transparency Project found that Apple filed more trademark oppositions over a three-year period than Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook combined.

      If you think trademarking of common terms is a bad thing at all, apple seems to be the worst among big tech firms.

      P.S. this “Android Authority” article put apple in the correct light in my opinion after reading it, and I use a lot of Apple products.

      • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        this whole argument is preposterous on its face to blame apple for anything when the problem is the laws which allow it. where’s the outrage for the swiss apple company with their trademarked apple logo? nowhere.

        you hate apple, and that’s the source of the outrage and why you blame them rather than the courts and legislatures for their crappy IP laws.

        • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          By this logic, if there’s a law somewhere that unintentionally allows them to crush orphans, they aren’t malicious to do so.

          Apple and other corporations lobby for this kind of crappy IP law, so they can sue people.

          Apple expanded into this market recently and are pretending to be the incumbent apple themed brand in that space in the whole world.

          • BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            By this logic, if there’s a law somewhere that unintentionally allows them to crush orphans, they aren’t malicious to do so.

            That’s not logic, that’s a logical fallacy:

            False equivalence

            A false equivalence or false equivalency is an informal fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency. Colloquially, a false equivalence is often called “comparing apples and oranges.”

            or in this case, comparing a copyright claim to mass child murder… also…

            Apple and other corporations lobby for this kind of crappy IP law, so they can sue people.

            prove that Apple lobbied the Swiss government for this law or for a favorable outcome. I’m pretty confident that you can’t, and that you’re making up this claim because you can’t make an argument without fabricating claims

            Apple expanded into this market recently…

            Apple products have been available for purchase in Switzerland for decades.

            …and are pretending to be the incumbent apple themed brand in that space in the whole world.

            i don’t think you know what the word “incumbent” means, but you not liking apple or the fact that they’re prolific or popular is not tantamount to a crime. it’s pretty entitled to claim that your personal opinion should have any bearing on the legality of another person’s or company’s actions.