Apple Store design and layout can be trademarked in Europe, court rules
The European Union's top court ruled Thursday that Apple's distinctive retail store layout is worthy of trademark protection under European law, allowing the company to enjoy the same legal cover on the old continent that it secured in the U.S. last year.
"From this the Court concludes that the representation of the layout of a retail store, by a design alone, without indicating the size or the proportions, may be registered as a trade mark for services," the European Court of Justice wrote in its decision. The court's directive was first noted by the Wall Street Journal.
Apple submitted its store design for protection to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2010, and the application was approved in January of 2013. Soon after, the company applied to extend that trademark to Europe and was rebuffed by the German patent office, which argued that such a trademark would not be valid under EU law.
German courts escalated a review of the law to the ECJ, which has the final say on interpretations of EU law.
Apple often cites is expansive retail empire as a major competitive advantage, and rivals -- including heavyweights like Microsoft -- have attempted to mimic the stores' design and layout, generally without success. Thursday's ruling comes as the iPhone maker is in the midst of a major expansion under new retail chief Angela Ahrendts, including what appears to be a new flagship store in a nearly 250-year-old building in the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh.
"From this the Court concludes that the representation of the layout of a retail store, by a design alone, without indicating the size or the proportions, may be registered as a trade mark for services," the European Court of Justice wrote in its decision. The court's directive was first noted by the Wall Street Journal.
Apple submitted its store design for protection to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2010, and the application was approved in January of 2013. Soon after, the company applied to extend that trademark to Europe and was rebuffed by the German patent office, which argued that such a trademark would not be valid under EU law.
German courts escalated a review of the law to the ECJ, which has the final say on interpretations of EU law.
Apple often cites is expansive retail empire as a major competitive advantage, and rivals -- including heavyweights like Microsoft -- have attempted to mimic the stores' design and layout, generally without success. Thursday's ruling comes as the iPhone maker is in the midst of a major expansion under new retail chief Angela Ahrendts, including what appears to be a new flagship store in a nearly 250-year-old building in the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh.
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That's a funny feeling. With my partners at the time, I opened an Apple Center (a similar concept to the Apple Store which Apple furnished with Bang Olufsen furniture and grey and white striped carpets) in Edinburgh in an equally old building except ours was on the Royal Mile. This was in the mid 1980s. We had a dedicated showroom area, training room and repair facility, we even had a image setter room for out-putting film from PageMaker and Illustrator etc.. It had an Italian style coffee bar upstairs over looking the Royal Mile where clients could sip coffee and chat with my sales staff. Here is one of the few photographs I still have, this inside the show room showing the furniture.
Sometimes I forget how much history and experience this forum has
Cool to see this type of stuff. Looks like a IIci or cx and the lovable Mac Luggable.
And I still look exactly the same too .. :rolleyes:
It's a cx I think ... I'll blow up there image and look ... I wish I'd realized what a part of history all that was back then and taken more pictures. Heck before this place I had a another in England with 5 branches around the country selling Apple ][s, ///s and Lisa ... then Mac of course. I have only hand full of pictures from over 36 years of being totally involved with Apple. That really annoys the heck out of me now! That said my play room here in Florida is stacked with many Macs from over the years but sadly my Apple ][e, disk drives and monitor (all pristine in boxes) vanished from my dad's basement in Grange over Sands, Cumbria just after he died a few years back.
And I still look exactly the same too ..
It's a cx I think ... I'll blow up there image and look ... I wish I'd realized what a part of history all that was back then and taken more pictures. Heck before this place I had a another in England with 5 branches around the country selling Apple ][s, ///s and Lisa ... then Mac of course. I have only hand full of pictures from over 36 years of being totally involved with Apple. That really annoys the heck out of me now! That said my play room here in Florida is stacked with many Macs from over the years but sadly my Apple ][e, disk drives and monitor (all pristine in boxes) vanished from my dad's basement in Grange over Sands, Cumbria just after he died a few years back.
I was wondering if that was you or not
Certainly now with digital photography, we tend to have many more pictures of things. Back then with film, people tended to be much more selective.
That sucks about the ][e
Back on top (ha), I wonder how long Apple will themselves even stick to this store design. Will it be revised with Angela taking over?
Back on top (ha), I wonder how long Apple will themselves even stick to this store design. Will it be revised with Angela taking over?
The implication is that she’s the one who made the change.
I really don't see how this survives a test of obviousness or prior art, but the EU is free to run their set of countries anyway they chose.
The real problem I have is that, at least in the US, a properly defended trademark never expires. If enough layouts are trademarked, at some point shop owners could be subject to trademark trolls demanding ransoms for infringing on store layout trademarks or patents.
I'd love to see Apple granted proper legal protections for this in China...but I don't see that ever happening.
That Mac Portable cost $7,300 in 1988
What furniture? All I see is captain bad ass Chuck Norris.
Really? Wow and I probably had a few in stock too. I had forgotten what they cost. The Lisa always stuck in my mind as the costliest beast. Not that a fully loaded Apple /// with Profile and all the trimmings wasn't getting up there too. And people moan about an iMac or MBA costing $1,000 today
ROFL, that was after a hair cut too! It is funny seeing ourselves from past eras of fashions ... not that I look much different now ... lol
That Mac Portable cost $7,300 in 1988
Really? Wow and I probably had a few in stock too. I had forgotten what they cost.
Add another $2,000 for the additional 8 MB of RAM option. It came with 1 MB. You could have a max of 9 MB.
Are you suffering from "road rag"?
So that's why my bank was always moaning about my stock levels!
sssshhhhhhhhhh .... don't give them ideas.
They tried to file for the same trademark here a few years back, however since Apple didn't have a store in Switzerland yet it was denied. In the mean time our big Apple reseller DataQuest converted all of their stores to look like Apples. So when Apple finally opened their first store in Zurich the first thing they did was file for the trademark again, it was denied, this time because it would have interfered with a Swissy company. The Apple lawyers told the commission that it could affect future relations with Apple, as in no more stores, the commission responded with a stern don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. We're all kinds of nuts here. Apple also ran into some problems with their employees, all businesses are required to hire a certain percentage of locals, it's some absurd ratio, like 60 percent, Apple didn't pass a spot check and was forced to hire more Swiss people.
DataQuest
I have to say I prefer shopping at Dataquest, one I've known the people who work their for years, two they sell used and demo models, three I don't have to go to Zurich, the Dataquest store is only 5 minutes away.
They were just as useless. I've been to both, I use both Apple and Windows, and they're just the tech industry's versions of automobile showrooms.
Chuck Norris doesn't need a phone to make calls.