Logo a no-go: Apple Inc. takes on Big Apple
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - April 4, 2008 Apple on Friday renewed its challenge to a trademark
registration application that New York City filed last May, saying
the apple logo was too similar to its own.
Both logos depict a plump apple with a leaf. Apple's logo is
white, with its signature bite mark, while New York City's proposed
trademark is a green, figure-eight outline reminiscent of an
infinity sign, with a stem, and the word "greeNYC" under it.
Apple's challenge, filed in January with the federal Trademark
Trial and Appeal Board, says the company will be "damaged" if the
trademark is granted. The city responded, alleging one of Apple's
trademarks was fraudulently acquired. Apple disputed that
allegation in another filing Friday.
"We believe the infinity apple design and its mission to create
environmental awareness are unique and distinctive and do not
infringe upon the Apple Computer brand," Kimberly Spell,
spokeswoman for NYC & Co., the city's marketing arm, said in a
statement.
The city's logo was meant to invoke thoughts of upstate New
York's bucolic rural areas, where apple orchards once delivered
much of the nation's crop, Spell later said in an interview with
The Associated Press. The idea came from the city's longtime
nickname, The Big Apple, she said.
Any proceeds from the campaign will be used to plant trees, and
have nothing to do with computers, Spell said Friday.
The green living campaign is confined to the city and its
property, and is part of a small environmental initiative, not a
worldwide tourism campaign, Spell argued. Whole Foods Market Inc.
last week began selling cloth bags with the logo at its New York
City stores.
Apple, maker of iPods and Macintosh computers, declined to
comment.
The company argues in its filing that its logo's fame will be
diluted, resulting in confusion among consumers. To back up the
fame claim, Apple touted its three retail outlets in Manhattan as
popular tourist destinations.
Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, first registered its apple
logo as a trademark in 1979 for computers and computer programs. It
wasn't until 2002 that the company trademarked the logo for use in
publications, and then only for printed material in business and
technology-related fields.
New York City has been called The Big Apple since at least the
1940s, according to The Society for New York City History. But the
city does not own any trademarks related to "The Big Apple"
phrase, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.
Resolution of the dispute could come by late 2009, according to
a schedule of expected filings provided by the trademark board.