Apple and Prepear's trademark lawsuit

 

Prepear, that helps you make safe food,

Prepear is a small startup company in Utah, USA. They started with a blog that provides kids with recipes for making healthy food. After that, they created an app with a function that you can immediately purchase the groceries needed for cooking. The name "prepear" was created by combining cook (prepare) and a fruit, pear, and the logo was also created after the shape of a pear.

▲ prepear.com

Apple's logo trademark infringement lawsuit,

In March of last year, Apple filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Prepear, claiming that the logo is similar. Apple argued that Prepear is taking unfair advantage by making the logo similar, which undermines Apple's brand image. Prepear and Apple's logos consist of a fruit with a leaf designs. There are differences in the shape of apples and pears, but Apple has determined Prepear’s one doesn’t have a special personality and causes confusion.

▲ uspto.gov

How to deal with the Apple,

Prepear had to pay thousands of dollars in filing a lawsuit against Apple, but it was too big for a small company. While looking for a solution to protect the logo, Prepear posted their stories on the global petition site Change.org, and 10,000 people responded less than a week after posting. Public opinion on Apple became more and more negative. Since then, the petition has spread all over the world with more than 260,000 signatures to date.

▲ change.org

Public opinion, design and Apple's choice?

In December of last year, Apple asked the Trademark Trials and Appeals Committee to suspend the proceedings for 30 days. When critical public opinion prevailed over the lawsuit, Apple stopped to reach an agreement. If no agreement within 30 days, the trial automatically resumes on January 23. 

▲ uspto.gov

As this lawsuit becomes an issue, there’s keen interest on whether it will affect Apple's image and how Apple will proceed with this lawsuit.