Apple did not let Pear Technologies register a pear silhouette logo

Lawyers for protecting intellectual property of Apple are closely watching that no one encroaches on the trademarks of Apple Company. In 2014, the modest company Pear Technologies, a developer of software and services for digital cartography, tried to register with the European Union Intellectual Property Office ( EUIPO ) the trademark with the pear logo: pear, as indicated in the company's name. The application was filed on February 18, 2014, published on August 11, 2014 - and it was challenged by Apple lawyers on November 11, 2014.

After several years of proceedings and appeals in January 2017, the Appeals Board of the Fifth Board of Appeal made a final decision .

Apple representatives presented a trademark in the form of a silhouette with a bitten apple, which was registered in the European Union on March 30, 2012, in support of their position. The documents state that the rights to this figurative mark belong to Apple in relation to a wide class of goods and services that belong to the classifier class 9, class 16, class 28, class 35, class 37, class 38, class 41 and class 42. The listing of these products takes a dozen pages in small print: everything is there, from toys and paper products to quizzes, lotteries, movies and cassette video players. Of course, Pear Technologies’s attempt to register a trademark in the form of a pear immediately fell into several categories, for which a trademark in the form of a bitten apple was already registered.
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EUIPO experts recognized the widespread fame of the Apple logo, and also conducted a comparative analysis of the logos of Pear Technologies and Apple. They expressed the opinion that “graphic elements representing a pear have graphic features that are similar to the previous mark [of the apple], especially in terms of abstract stylizations and smooth, rounded silhouettes of fruits represented on both signs, with an oblong shape located at an angle top of the main objects. "

The experts took into account that the “oblong object” at the top of the object is different objects in the two logos. The apple is a leaf, and the pear - the stalk. The official decision noted that the apple leaf is separated from the main silhouette, and the pear stalk merges with it, as well as the fact that they are tilted in different directions. However, the experts considered these differences insignificant, and they "do not interfere with the visual similarity of [Pear Technologies logo] with an earlier sign."

Pear Technologies lawyers have made such arguments. First, the graphic sign Pear Technologies has no bitten element. Secondly, it is gray, in contrast to the solid black fill of the Apple sign. Thirdly, it is a completely different form. Fourth, the applicant owns the trademark with the word PEAR. Fifthly, the presence of the inscription with the name of the company clearly and clearly distinguishes the signs between themselves. Lawyers have argued that the words “apple” and “pear” look and sound differently. People also clearly distinguish between the graphic images of apples and pears as two different objects. And if Apple objects to a pear-shaped logo, then it must object to a trademark with the word PEAR.

Lawyers even reminded the commission of the idiom "it's like comparing apples and pears," which means comparing two completely different, incomparable objects between themselves.

But the EUIPO commission has not changed its point of view. She does not believe that the presence of the explicit Pear Technologies inscription is a cardinal distinction of marks. On the contrary, she stressed that the word Pear, “if it is understood, only strengthens the concept represented by the graphic element and therefore creates a semantic unit”.

In other words, the inscription with the name of the company and the word "pear" as if enhances the similarity with the apple logo.

Other arguments of Pear Technologies were also ignored - and in the end, the EUIPO commission, and then the Appeals Board, decided in favor of Apple, banning the registration of a trademark with the image of a pear.

Pear Technologies does not agree with the decision of the board and believes that the judgment about the similarity of the two logos was made only because both of them contain fruits. Thus, Apple monopolized the right to depict fruit on logos. Maybe the berries too.

But the most interesting thing is that this is not over. Later, Pear Technologies attempted to register another trademark with the image of a pear, in which she tried to remove the slightest resemblance to the Apple logo.



And she was not allowed again. Failure with almost the same wording.

We have to admit that Apple just outstanding lawyers work. Although someone may say that when it comes to trademarks, money decides everything. The richer person is right. And in support of their decisions "experts" can come up with the most stupid wording.