Apple after suing the The Victoria School of Business and Technology in Canada (logo on the left) for the similarity of their logo to the Apple trademark, now decided they are going after Woolworth and their newly launched identity (logo in the middle). While the logos clearly not similar, other than showing the same fruit, Apple’s problem is that Woolworth may in the future sell electronics, which may create confusion for consumers.
You know that I’m a huge Apple fanboy and a big supporter of trademark protection. In this case however if I somebody asked my opinion (which didn’t happen) I would certainly dismiss Apple’s claim as ridiculous.
If we were to go down this route, literally tens of thousands of companies will have to change their logos featuring apples to make sure they will not confuse consumers in case they happen to release electronics in the future. Such practice would put a ban on the use of an important symbol carrying rich symbolism. Going further, Coca-Cola could ban the use of script type, IBM would ban anything with stripes and McDonald’s could wipe the uppercase letter M from public communication altogether.
I’m of course exaggerating. Also, I’m not sure about the legal background of the case. The point I want to make is that the legal boundary of trademark protection should be events up till the present. We should not allow speculations about the future into such claims, because by doing that we will limit creative work.
