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Apple Threatens Bistro Over "AppleADay" Name
itwbennett writes "In today's edition of David v. Goliath, Apple lawyers have sent cease and desist letters to a tiny health food restaurant in Luxembourg named AppleADay. For their part, the owners of AppleADay, with help from a lawerly friend, have promised that they would continue to sell only food, not computers. Of course, Apple knows as well as anyone that promises are made to be broken, having famously promised Apple Corps, the Beatles' production company, they would never get into the music business."
...to iAppleADay
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I mean, NOBODY is going to confuse them for the Apple Store. This is just petty.
Apple sues Mother Nature for making a fruit with the same name.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
when lawyers have too much time on their hands.
"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger Dijkstra
Because if not, it should be.
Apple lawyers contact a farmer in Texas about his infringement for having "Apples" on his inventory when they have exclusive distribution rights.
In related news, Apple contacted the Indian government about possible product dilution of their Siri software. Although even Apple had to admit that a Sari wasn't exactly the same pronounciation, they requested that the garment be renamed to something that wouldn't be so close to stave off any possible trouble down the line.
Thanks for watching, enjoy the movie...
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Maybe they're just pissed that someone is referring to the reliability and longevity of their PowerPC and Performa lines from back in the day...
At least they didn't name the restaurant "Road Apples"...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
First, this story is months old and dates back to late August. Second, contrary to the headline, they're not threatening over the "AppleADay" name but the logo.
Third, as is pointed out every time an incident like this occurs, trademark owners have to take no chances and must enforce perceived violations or risk losing their right to it. There is always the risk that a court somewhere in the world might cite the lack of action in some particular case. But, since it's a "David v. Goliath" article, as the summary put it, it's an excellent story to submit to Slashdot and rile up the natives.
When you register a trademark, you have to select which class(es) of service the goods or services your company sells should cover. This seems to imply to me that a trademark only covers those classes of service, so unless Apple Inc registered their trademark for selling actual fruit, I don't understand how this works under the law. Why even have classes of service if company's are going to claim trademark infringement willy nilly on any classes of service, even ones they don't offer?
Apple was trademarkable because it was being applied to computers and other consumer electronics and not to a business selling fruits. This is the basis for the Trademark being distinct and being granted a registration. The interesting legal question: having once been granted this Trademark on this determination and established a brand following. Can such a Trademark now be used as an offensive tool against a company which sells fruits or their close relative food using the theory of dilution of the mark. Dilution of a mark was a crazy idea in 1920s. Now it's the law.
I'm a bit confused, I thought trademark law were pretty cut and dry when it came to names. That as long as the products or businesses are in different markets, there can not be a case.
Maybe someone should advise Apple that being seen as a bully is not very fashionable.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You never know, that small business in Luxemburg just might transform itself to the largest corporation in the world. I think Apple is just hedging it bets on this one.
Linux O Muerte!
Not quite fair.
Apple became the IP trolls during the last few years of Steve running it. Probably coinciding with his realization that he really screwed up when he put his faith in non scientific medicine, and effectively sentenced himself to a slow disgraceful death.
He were incapable of blaming himself, so he had to take out his newfound level of hatred and self-loathing on everybody else.
Orchard owners instructed to cut down apple trees.
Overcoatsuppliers feel the breeze.
Hi-Fi manufacturers silenced.
removes tongue from cheek
Perhaps the New Management (iManage?) worry that Jobs will come back to haunt them if they don't continue to act like assholes?
so why has apple not sued apple orchards and picking places as well?
Orignal story dates from the 5th of may (6 month old stories now Slashdot, really ?) There was a flurry of news reporting and no updates since then, not even on their Facebook page where the restaurant gleefully displayed its new found notoriety. So I'm guessing it turned out to be very much a non-story played up for advertising value.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Maybe executions for the losing party (and their lawyers) in any frivolous lawsuit will fix the problem. With the additional requirement that the wealthier party has to spend as little on lawyers as the poorest party involved.
Oh, and maybe the judge had an iPad, and had been infected with the dreaded disease "pomum ipodus fanboyus maximus", thus been rendered incapable of perceiving Apple as having done anything wrong.
The spirit of Steve Jobs lives on.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
...but if there's any truth to the argument, here must be some reason--perhaps something to do with local laws in Luxembourg--that is motivating Apple to do this. A simple search on Google shows that there are dozens of businesses even here in the states named "Apple A Day [something]", and unless Apple is planning on suing them, this random lawsuit makes little enough sense that there must be something that we're not aware of.
It's happened before, though. Some time back, I remember reading an article about a restaurant run by a woman whose first name was Sony (probably short for something, but that's what she'd gone by her whole life), which restaurant was named "Sony's". I think it was in San Jose, California. Anyway, they were sued by the Japanese consumer electronics mega corp. I don't know how it turned out. Who knows? Maybe the real reason they were being sued was because they were playing music from the Sony catalog without paying royalties. Probably not, though, as I think that ASCAP are the ones that go after those things.
Point being, I'm intrigued and would love to see more of the actual facts, since I can't think of a single good reason that Apple would even consider providing such wonderful flame bait for their detractors. Also: I can't wait to see the NMA adaptation of this.
My guess: Steve Jobs once had a bad coffee at the place, and his will included them as a target for retribution along with 600 other companies against which he had an un-settled grudge at the time of his passing. Insane? Yes. But at least it would be internally consistent.
The CB App. What's your 20?
I thought Jobs "thought different" and Apple should be worshiped!
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Seems like that's another journalist who needs to take geography classes... first he talks about a company from Luxemburg, then he says it's located in Belgium... quite a difference !
I thought Jobs "thought different" and Apple should be worshiped!
Apple, Inc. (formerly Apple Computer) is not thinking much different from most idiotic practices of idiotic companies.
I expect, as the article doesn't delve into anything much presently going on, from the Apple, Inc., end there may have been a "whoa, there, pard!" issued from Cupertino to the feisty lawyers. Crush a hapless little bistro and you may find riots in front of Apple Stores across Europe - not the kind of "ooo, shiny!" they're going for.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There's serious talk now of them manufacturing a TV. Now if they do, they'll be entering a market dominated by the very competitor it just tried to stifle using its infamous "round corners" look and feel argument, and it even bullied a few weaker governments into banning their products - of course this competitor being Samsung. Now, lets think this through a moment - Apple want to make TV's. So, lets hope they make something other than a large 42" thin black rectangle which shows TV pictures, because that's exactly what Samsung have been making for years. Or if they do, what are the chances of those same governments applying their look and feel logic as before?
Apple's arrogance knows no bounds. They begin to think that they own everything apple. How long before you need a license from them to have an apple tree in your back yard? Especially McIntosh apples?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I'm sure that a lot of Apple fans have gone to AppleADay.com hoping to subscribe to a service that would sell them a new iThing every day just so they could be sure to always have the latest and greatest.
But then he made a boatload off his confusion.
It appears to me that this whole thing is just another attempt to get you all riled up about big bad Goliath...
TFA is incredibly weak, lacking any sort of details...
Consider that the restaurant may have been using a different logo earlier?
I just sent this story to someone and got this reply:
They are piece of shit assholes
Sent from my iPhone
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Apple's promise wasn't broken -- it was re-negotiated.
Seeing the supposedly infringing logo, I understand:
It looks nothing like the Apple Computer logo, but IT LOOKS BETTER!
Apple wants it.
The submitter, who works for itworld, sent a link to slashdot with an itworld article that has no source material nor citations of where the story was sourced. The only actual journalism that anyone has done on this appears to come from:
http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/en/luxembourg/articles/2011/05/149560/index.php
This is the link that should have been posted. Seriously, it took me less than a minute to vet this.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
TFA says Apple threatened to sue. How? Letter, phone call, an undercover thug off the street? If true, screw Apple (computer), but maybe a source would be helpful than just some article saying "Hey, Bob threatens to pee on my carpet."
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
... on the same fruity business: http://www.bonkersworld.net/eating-fruit/
Should apple threaten all the apple growers all around the world as well? It is quite possible they use apple images in their boxes and it is therefore possible that some retard will think they are full of iWank devices. And what about mother nature? Mother nature is using the logo without paying any royalties to apple . Outrageous!!!!!
and their soup is made out of soylent green.
An Apple A day only keeps the doctor away
I'd shove an ipad up their asshole, except they'd enjoy it
Of course the phrase "Apple a day" has been in the public domain and "dates from 19th century Wales" according to wikipedia....
How Ironic, the Welsh should take their own advice.
There is absolutely no possibility of confusion between a restaurant / cafe called appleaday and manufacturer of consumer electronics called Apple. None. There is no trademark infringement here. Neither company competes within the domain of the other. Consumers aren't going to confuse the two. It doesn't dilute Apple's brand. If this went to court it would be dismissed almost immediately which suggests that Apple are just being assholes, vigorously threatening any business containing the word Apple even if their threats are entirely baseless.
Apple's bringing of patent lawsuits against Android manufacturers was apparently one of Steve's last acts before his death. "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." Try to tell me that those words are a call to something other than the storm of patent lawsuits they unleashed on the industry recently. Don't try to tell me Steve took Apple with him: if anything, his influence is still guiding the company's hand, and I can only hope that his successors will be less competent.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
I can see this now....
Stop here if you are weak of mind/sanity, reading this may cause brain damage and/or mental harm...welcome to my nightmare.(with apologies to Alice Cooper)
To continue...
Note:
1. materials required for this mental exercise:
a) 1 each hogshead of bleach.
b) 1 each pump/transfer device to move working quantities of aforementioned bleach to smaller, handier 'work' container that is suitable for dipping bottle/test tube brushes into.
c) minimum of 1,000 of aforementioned bottle/test tube brushes...100,000 recommended.
d) [optional] bib, HAZMAT suit, or other bleach-resistant protective gear.
2. Instructions (read me file)
a) transfer 'practical' volume of bleach to the 'handy 'working container" [recommended: 1 Qt. or liter, with the ability to repeatedly 'dunk' the brush into]
b) grasp a brush, dip the bristles (fully) into the bleach 'working' container.
c) insert brush fully(to the grasping fingers) into right ear, then plunge in and out, using 'full-length strokes', repeatedly, for 15 seconds.
d) discard brush in an approved manor ["Biological Waste" is recommended in the USA], and grasp a new brush...repeat "c)" above, then d) [this step] at LEAST 1,000 repetitions.
e) check results, repeat as necessary until desired results are achieved.
[Disclaimer: "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"]
The next 'hit' TV show in the USA:
*TV announcer voice* "Tonight on 'Dancing with the Laywers', we welcome our guest judges, Apple's legal team, and our host, [Smart]Alecks Saskatchewan"
Audience: (suspiciously, all dressed in Black Turtlenecks) : wild applesauce
Host: "Tonight, we have Apple's legal team judging the competition, and our first challenger, Johnny Appleseed!"
Audience: *starts heating tar, and gathering feathers, as Johnny runs onto stage... pandemonium erupts*"Heretic!" "Blasphemer!" "Infidel!" "Un-believer!" "He's a witch!"
Alecks: "Johnny Appleseed, is that REALLY your name?"
Johnny: "Yeah, it kinda' runs in the family."
Alecks: *looking bemused, hands Johnny a large jar of Vaseline* "Man, you are SOOOOOO fsck'ed! Good luck with that."
*cut to commercial*
Announcer: "And now, a word from our sponsors, 'Roto Rooter', the cutting edge of anal probes....wholeheartedly endorsed by the TSA, DHS, ICE, FBI, CIA, and numerous other 'No Such Agency' types, not to mention countless Alien Incursion groups, universe wide!" *gruesome alien anal probe/TSA security checkpoint commercial plays...scene fades away to the credits after watching Johnny getting ass-probed/sodomized by the judges for the next 18 minutes....stretched into 30 minute viewing slot...with numerous commercial breaks*
You were warned!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
They can't do that. It's been clearly established for a long time that the food is not related to the company. And the restaurant's name is obviously based off a phrase off the food. Nobody will think about the company Apple when they see that name.
Dumbest lawsuit I've seen on here yet.
I am not devoid of humor.
Probably not. But on the other hand, as far as I can tell, they aren't in the computer business, either.
This is clearly a frivolous lawsuit. AppleADay is in no way infringing on Apple, Inc's trademark. I hope Apple gets hit with the maximum penalties the law allows for such abuse of the legal system.
-Mike
I'm sorry; I don't know what I was thinking!
I am in big trouble.
Apple doesn't have any problems w/ this chain?
A lawsuit on apple farmers?