Apple Settles Trademark Opposition With PrePear Recipe App After The Latter Makes A Barely Perceptible Change In Logo
from the leaf-them-alone dept
Last summer, we discussed Apple opposing the trademark application for recipe app PrePear. While the tech company and a company that attempts to promote healthy eating aren't competing with one another, Apple argued that PrePear's logo was deceptively similar to its own. Here they are, side by side.
As we pointed out previously, it should be immediately obvious how dumb Apple's claims are. The two logos look nothing alike, have different color schemes and style types, and consist of totally different fruits. That PrePear has a pear in its logo and name only drives the point home further. Despite that, rather than backing down in shame, Apple expanded its attack to Canada, where it also opposed the trademark application there. PrePear had to lay off at least one of its handful of employees as a direct results of the costs associated with the opposition.
Which probably makes it all the more irritating to find that this has all now been settled such that Apple's demands for action are so frustratingly insignificant so as to make everyone wonder what the hell the point of all this was to begin with.
Six months later, the case is now settled, and it seems Apple didn’t actually have a pear-shaped problem after all — because Super Healthy Kids has agreed to change the shape of the leaf atop that pear, and Apple has agreed that’s good enough to let the trademark go forward.
And here is the change that PrePear agreed to.
You really do have to squint at the image to even make out what change was made, didn't you? The change is so minor that its only real use is in calling into question why Apple's lawyers pursued this at all. It's not as though this dispute wasn't painful for the PrePear folks. It was. There was cost, both in terms of money and its ability to retain its employees.
So how insulting must it be for Apple's big ask... to be barely altering the shape of a pear leaf?
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Filed Under: apple, pear, trademark
Companies: apple, prepair
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Yet more examples of how useless legal certification is
I know this isn't the point of the article, and there are certainly far more egregious examples than this you could/should pull from, but this is just yet another example of how Bar Associations are pointless. If you were to ask an lawyer why and whether it was ethical to pursue this case I'm sure they'd claim it was an executive decision and honestly a non-lawyer saying this should be looked into should be kicked out as incompetent but not punished for having the thought.
However the lawyers who actually argued the case should be disbarred for clearly advancing unethical and frivolous claims. I know that isn't how it works, I'm saying that's how it should be and the fact that it takes situations so extreme to get a bar association to actually take action means there is so much room for lawyers to earn crazy amounts of money under the excuse of "someone else wanted it done" which ultimately results in just more legal fees all around and exploiting those unable to pay for a full defense against such claims.
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PrePear fixed it
Well, looks like PrePear finally got the message. They could have saved everyone a lot of time and money if they drawn the leaf without rounded corners in the first place.
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Fig leaf
Someone needed cover.
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That's not it
Legal departments have performance metrics, too.
The executive summary of action and result will not include pictures. It might even be just a statistic. Also having enforced a change means that the defendant cannot ask for recovery of legal costs, having agreed that there is a case.
It's really hard to insult a lawyer. If you really do it convincingly, you'll get sued.
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I hope this is sarcasm, because otherwise it sounds a lot like blaming the victim of a shit-ass trademark shakedown for said shakedown.
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nice blog
nice blog... please kepp it up..
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The real insidious part of this is that Apple has now established a precedent that it has a trademark on the shape of a leaf. Not even a particular leaf or a realistic looking leaf, but just any football shape used as a leaf in a logo.
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Apple should be proscuted un RICO
This is an absolute rip-off.
Apple has become a criminal organization.
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Re: Apple should be proscuted un RICO
stupid stuck keys.
...UNDER RICO
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Re:
Your sarcasm detector is working.
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Re: Re:
However, to get the most out of my comment, you should download the "Patent Disputes" DLC, yours for just $0.99.
It's a cheap joke.
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Re: PrePear fixed it
"drawn the leaf without rounded corners"
Came here for this, was not disappointed.
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Re:
Something something Canadian Hockey team.
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It’s Like Comparing Apples to...
An unfortunate pear.
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Re: Re:
Unfortunately, my sarcasm detector was working too well, it exploded. I am holding Devonavar liable for the destruction of my sarcasm detector. I expect a check in my mailbox for the $0 of damages plus triple in punitive damages by next morning.
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