14 DAY TRIAL // New York is facing a lawsuit from Apple Inc.'s CEO, Steve Jobs, who claims copyright infringement upon the company's logo. NY City's environmental awareness campaign, GreeNYC, features a similar logo to Apple Inc's - an apple, of course. It seems the leaf on top of the GreeNYC logo was noticed by Apple just weeks ago.
"The suit stems from New York's environmental awareness campaign, GreeNYC, and its logo, which uses the outline of an apple, complete with a little leaf on top. Filed in September, the suit had gone unnoticed until this week. The California computer giant claims the drawing is too similar to its ubiquitous trademark," said Hilary Potkewitz reporting for Crain's New York Business.
Apple Computer's lawyers wrote the following, in their September filing with the Trademark Trial and Appeal board objecting to the logo, the same source reveals, according to MacDailyNews:
"[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."
Although Apple is pretty much right, by the looks and sound of it, New York City Corp. Counsel Michael Cardozo immediately filed a counterclaim to have Apple's case thrown out, claiming that the two logos are "different." Honestly now, not having the exact same features makes them different as far as their impact goes...? I mean, this is what Apple is suing for: the fact that people might relate to the two logos in similar ways.
Without a doubt, Apple's image and worldwide recognition could potentially be affected, should the worldwide population become more familiar to both logos to a certain degree. The suit however shouldn't (although it might) affect 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.
Don't let this suit come into conflict with the tips above, as they have nothing to do with the logo.