Copyrighting a Fruit?

How can Apple do that?


I've always wondered about it..Cause its like Microsoft copyrighting the Glass Windows.

Do you think Apple would get angry if someone made a new computer company under "Banana" or "pear" or something similar.

 

Firstly, they haven't copyrighted anything. They have a registered trademark on the name used for computing (so you can call your day care centre apple for example, you just couldn't sell computers and the likes under that name) and secondly they have a registered trademark on their symbol which is the apple logo. And like microsoft who have a registered trademark for their windows logo, and also for the text / name Windows when it applies to computing (and not actual glass windows).

So you could get a trademark on Pear, and if you register it as 'the brand is related to soft toys' you couldn't get done. I think, and only in the case of microsoft, that if you sold computers under a name similar to theirs you'd be getting a letter or two through the post for 'confusing existing customers with similar brand names' or something along those lines, I don't know if Mac would though, they seem a much more cooler company. Don't know though.

We have patent, intellectual property, and trademarks websites to search for 'names' and brands. So you can see what each registered trademark (text-wise) is registered for.

I once sold underfloor heating insulation and re-branded it "VersaTherm" and in the UK I hold the trademark still for that name. And if anybody is selling insulation under that name I can sue them. Though there is a cooker company that has a range called VersaTherm too.

Providing you're not confusing customers of an existing company you cna chose whatever name you want.

Copyright is the term used for 'copy' so text or images or something. When you see the TM next to a logo, it's not a registered trademark, but if they can prove they were trading with it, and have had TM next to it since day one, they have similar protection as a registered mark.

Though a registered mark is the way to go if you have a brand and name you don't want duplicated.

Somehow, China always appears to get around all this though.

 

I'm pretty sure the actual fruit, the apple, isn't copyrighted... but Apple's unique renditions of the Apple logo are. Images and designs of apples can still be used in logos or for any usual purpose, as long as it isn't identical to one of Apple's copyrighted/trademarked logos.

 

Correct. The fruit isn't. Perhaps I should have said that. lol

And you can make a logo very similar to Apple's if you were running a day care centre. Though the moment you sold a computer from there, even second hand to staff, say, you'd be liable for infringing on their trademark and you could be selling your day care centre to cover even the legal fee's let alone the outcome costs.

Nick might be able to find the US trademark database (ours is patent.gov.uk).

 

Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)

 

Thanks.

This is interesting. Another firm has registered "Apple" and used a logo of an apple with the word apple under it. And they sell "pickhammers hand tools etc"

Word Mark APPLE
Goods and Services IC 008. US 023 028 044. G & S: Pickhammers; pickaxes; hand tools, namely, rakes, shovels, picks, hoes; agricultural implements, namely, ploughs; forks; sickles
Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS
Design Search Code 05.09.05 - Apples
26.17.09 - Bands, curved; Bars, curved; Curved line(s), band(s) or bar(s); Lines, curved
26.17.13 - Letters or words underlined and/or overlined by one or more strokes or lines; Overlined words or letters; Underlined words or letters
Serial Number 79015853
Filing Date August 29, 2005
Current Filing Basis 66A
Original Filing Basis 66A
Published for Opposition October 24, 2006
Registration Number 3196972
International Registration Number 0863562
Registration Date January 9, 2007
Owner (REGISTRANT) TANGSHAN YANNAN SHOVEL-MAKING CO., LTD. CORPORATION CHINA Wangtu Village East to Luannan County; HEBEI PROVINCE CHINA
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE


Your database search thing is worse than ours. I can't for the life of my find the actual Apple trademark number or info. I can't find 'Macintosh' either. But there you go, that's where you'd search for them anyway.

Sheers Gnatster