14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's logo has been spotted on cardboard boxes carrying fruit distributed by Italian fruit seller Vanzetti. The logo is similar to the extent that it has the same single leaf pointing left on top of an already bitten apple.
Leaving aside a few chromatic discrepancies (I find that it looks even better than the old rainbow logo, to be perfectly honest with you), as well as the larger bite (those apples must be quite tasty to take such a big first bite), the Apple logo and Vanzetti's look pretty much the same. Apple is known to take legal action against those who use its logo, the iPod / Pod dubbing, etc.
While the company isn't likely to take legal action against a fruit seller, Apple didn't have a problem suing the GreeNYC campaign, which upholds stuff like: don't air condition an empty room; unplug chargers and appliances when not in use; switch to a green energy provider; walk, bike or take public transportation, recycle your glass, metal, paper and plastic; bring your own cloth bag to the grocery store; use green cleaning products; switch to paperless bank statements and online bill paying. Also, note that the guys over at Apple are dedicated environmentalists.
"[GreeNYC's logo] so closely resembles Apple's [logo] that its use is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in the minds of consumers," wrote Apple's lawyers in their September filing, Potkewitz reports. "The company cited its New York flagship store, the giant glass cube on 5th Avenue, as a tourist attraction, and claimed people walking around carrying bags, wearing caps or drinking out of bottles emblazoned with GreeNYC apples would 'likely cause dilution of the distinctiveness of [Apple Computer's brand], resulting in damage and injury to the company."
Apple also sued the Victoria School of Business and Technology in Canada for using a logo shaped like an apple, Softpedia reported last year. The Victoria School of Business and Technology started using a blue and green apple logo in 2005. In October 2008, the school received a cease and desist letter from the Cupertino-based Mac maker, telling it to lose the logo, or else, citing too much of a resemblance with its own.
“Your business logo… reproduces, without authority, our client's Apple design logo which it widely uses. By doing so, you are infringing Apple's rights, and further, falsely suggesting that Apple has authorized your activities," Apple's lawyer Stephanie Vaccari wrote to the school in a letter dated Aug. 26. The letter was posted on the school's website shortly after. In response, the school's vice-president claimed that their apple was a unique logo, but admitted that Apple was likely to triumph in court.
Do you expect to see Apple taking the same measures in Vanzetti's case?