“Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Trade marks are granted for specific categories of products and services, allowing Hyundai and Microsoft to use the same trade mark (Excel) for a car and a computer program,” Withers reports. “But Woolworths is trying to register its logo as a trademark in Class 9 (among others), which includes ‘apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images… calculating machines, data processing equipment and computers… computer devices and computer peripheral devices… [and] computer hardware and software.'”
“Apple has products in all of those categories,” Withers reports. “Another issue is that Apple already uses its logo to identify its retail stores.”
Full article here.
Julian Lee reports for The Age, “Apple will have to convince IP Australia, the Federal Government agency that governs trademarks, to knock back Woolworths’ application – filed in August last year – to trademark its logo.”
“Woolworths’ application includes a wide class for electrical goods and technology, putting it in direct competition with Apple should the retailer choose to brand computers, music players or other devices,” Lee reports. “Woolworths has gone into credit cards and mobile phones, so the likelihood of it going into computers is not too remote.”
“Trademark lawyer Trevor Choy said it was common for Apple to prevent others from using anything that resembled an apple in a logo or marketing,” Lee reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, Apple is right to protect themselves against the possibility of Woolworths slapping said logo on some random phones, music players, PCs and/or other electronic devices and potentially confusing consumers and diminishing decades of hard work and money that Apple has invested in their brand’s logo – one of the most valuable in the world.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]