The tech giant Apple is reportedly negotiating a deal over a brand dispute over the small startup Prepear’s logo – a minimalist pear that Apple claims consumers mistake for its iconic Apple minimalist logo.
MacRumors reports that in August Apple tried to oppose a trademark order by the creators of a recipe and meal planning app called Prepear, which used the representation of a pear as a logo. Apple objected to the trademark Pepear logo, claiming it was very similar to the company’s famous apple logo.
Although the Prepear logo clearly shows the outline of a pear, Apple said the logo “consists of a minimalist fruit design with a right-angled leaf, which readily resembles Apple’s famous Apple logo and creates a similar commercial impression. “
The company behind Prepear, Super Healthy Kids, launched a petition trying to persuade Apple to give up its opposition, which Super Healthy Kids claimed to target a small company trying to protect a logo that does not resemble the Apple logo. The petition received more than 250,000 signatures.
Although Apple has not withdrawn its opposition, a resolution to the dispute may come soon, as the US Patent and Trademark Office’s trademark appeal and trial requests last week requested that trial proceedings be suspended for 30 days , as the “parties are actively involved in negotiations to resolve this issue.”
Either party is free to resume the process at any time and the process will automatically resume on January 23 if there is no further word from the two parties. If an agreement is not reached, the dispute may drag on for some time, with initial pre-trial disclosures set to begin in March and key trial instructions starting in October. The request for an oral hearing would not be made before December 2021.
Breitbart News recently reported that last year Apple sued security startup Corellium, accusing the company of violating copyright law by offering researchers access to “virtual” iPhones that could be used to find product bugs iOS. A Florida federal judge has already dismissed Apple’s copyright complaint.
The decision is a great victory for Corellium. Apple also accused the start-up of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for allegedly circumventing iPhone security measures to create the iPhone emulator. This claim has not yet been dealt with by the court.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News who covers issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact us by secure email at [email protected]