When you look at it closely, the silhouette and leaf position are pretty darn close. If you saw it in black & white there would be little difference besides a slight tilt.
You've got to be kidding right? The silhouette and leaf position aren't even remotely close.
Pretty obvious Apple could be easily confused given Apple's performance, or lack thereof, the last couple of years. The rest of us, not confused in the least. Apple being a bully!
"Registered with the Norwegian Industrial Property Office last November" needs a bit of context. It's not a new logo, Fremskrittspartiet has used this logo for almost 30 years.
What they're trying to do do now is to protect it for use in election give-aways (pens, buttons, balloons and whatever weird things they come up with) and other activities related to their political operations.
In a Norwegian context, the party is right wing and semi-populist - it's currently part of a government that's won the last couple of elections and has done a pretty good job. In the US, that would be left wing.
Given Fremskrittspartiet, the party owning the logo, holds the Finance Minister position in the Norwegian government, Apple should not be too Cooky. I am sure Apple paying disproportionately low taxes in Norway the Finance mInistry could easily conclude on.
Given the party was founded April 8, 1973 the logo may predate Apple Computer's fruit.
Pretty silly stuff. I hope someone in an executive position at Apple sees this and withdraws the filing. I'd like to think this is a case of someone being overzealous in some department at Apple and the issue wasn't given the necessary thought.
The political party in question must be perplexed to say the least.
When you look at it closely, the silhouette and leaf position are pretty darn close. If you saw it in black & white there would be little difference besides a slight tilt.
Have you ever actually seen the Apple logo? Seriously?
- The leaf is overlapping the apple, Apple Inc's is on a 33º angle above the apple. It's also waves and bright green. - They have a stem, Apple does not. - Angle is different - The overall shape is different - The bite out of the apple is missing - Big massive 'F' in the middle of theirs
Good grief man... if you think there would be little difference besides a slight tilt then you seriously need new glasses.
You missed the biggest thing ... Apple's "apple" on their website, their letterhead logo as well as the stickers they put in the box of every new product is pure white. This objection will elicit a snarky "thanks for your interest in our "Progress Party" response.
In US trademark law, there's the concept of confusion of marks. If a reasonable person would be confused as to which mark is which, there could be infringement. Just looking at those logos side by side I, as a most reasonable person, see a marked difference, and would not be prone to confusing a political party with a tech company. Whether that same principle applies to Norwegian trademark law, I don't know.
However, as someone has pointed out, if the Norwegian party's use of that apple predates Apple's use of theirs, I think that would likely decide the case right there, at least for use in Norway.
As Apple (Computer) itself said in its lawsuit with Apple Corp. (the Beatles' record company), "even a moron in a hurry" could tell the difference between the marks.
That's got to close the case, the Fremskrittspartiet logo looks more like Apple Corps than Apple Inc.
As Apple (Computer) itself said in its lawsuit with Apple Corp. (the Beatles' record company), "even a moron in a hurry" could tell the difference between the marks.
That's got to close the case, the Fremskrittspartiet logo looks more like Apple Corps than Apple Inc.
There’s more to the consideration than just how much given marks look like each other.
That said, Apple owns the Apple Corps trademark registrations in Norway. See here. It doesn’t own the ones related to the Beatles name, but it owns the ones related to images of Apples.
But Apple didn’t refer to those Apple Corps trademarks in its objection to the Fremskrittspartiet registration.
What’s next? Objecting to apple farmers’ use of an apple in their logo?
"range of products including digital media"
So…no!
So is a political party digital media? No. So why is Apple objecting? And it looks nothing like Apple's logo in any case, aside from the fact that it's an Apple, and Apple doesn't own the rights to all depictions of an apple. This is overreach and arrogance on the part of Apple, IMO.
When you look at it closely, the silhouette and leaf position are pretty darn close. If you saw it in black & white there would be little difference besides a slight tilt.
You've got to be kidding right? The silhouette and leaf position aren't even remotely close.
As far as trademark logos go, yes those are too similar (especially in black & white). If you made a Coca Cola mark that similar they’d do the same.
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What they're trying to do do now is to protect it for use in election give-aways (pens, buttons, balloons and whatever weird things they come up with) and other activities related to their political operations.
In a Norwegian context, the party is right wing and semi-populist - it's currently part of a government that's won the last couple of elections and has done a pretty good job. In the US, that would be left wing.
I am sure Apple paying disproportionately low taxes in Norway the Finance mInistry could easily conclude on.
Given the party was founded April 8, 1973 the logo may predate Apple Computer's fruit.
The political party in question must be perplexed to say the least.
However, as someone has pointed out, if the Norwegian party's use of that apple predates Apple's use of theirs, I think that would likely decide the case right there, at least for use in Norway.
That said, Apple owns the Apple Corps trademark registrations in Norway. See here. It doesn’t own the ones related to the Beatles name, but it owns the ones related to images of Apples.
But Apple didn’t refer to those Apple Corps trademarks in its objection to the Fremskrittspartiet registration.