Apple Wants to Be the Only Company Using an Apple In Its Branding

Apple has one of the most recognizable logos on this and any other known planet. It's an apple. You see it, you think of the company's products, whether it's the modern monochrome version or the retro rainbow logo. It's a masterclass in minimal branding.

Because of the logo's effectiveness, though, it turns out that Apple is fairly protective about any logo that it feels encroaches on its intellectual property. That is to say, Apple doesn't like it when any other company uses an apple for just about anything.

Fruit Union Suisse, a Swiss fruit farmer's organization dating back more than 100 years, reported that Apple is trying to keep them from using the apple in their logo.

APPLE: Apple wants to control every image of an apple, says Swiss fruit firm: Fruit Union Suisse says Apple is not just contesting its trademark apple logo, it wants to get exclusive rights to all depictions of actual apples.Left: Apple's logo. Right:… https://t.co/noEGPunPZv pic.twitter.com/jhNkvV3Z2g

— Asif Patel (@A51FR3D) June 19, 2023

"We have a hard time understanding this, because it's not like they're trying to protect their bitten apple," Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariéthoz told Wired. "Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal ... that should be free for everyone to use."

Apple has reportedly made similar requests to other companies that use apples in their branding design.

For an organization like Fruit Union Suisse, which wants to invoke an association with fruit growers, it's hard to find something better than an apple. And the organization is frustrated, because it doesn't know just how far Apple will go to keep it from coming anywhere close to the computer company's design.

"We're concerned that any visual representation of an apple—so anything that's audiovisual or linked to new technologies or to media—could be potentially impacted," Mariéthoz says. "That would be a very, very big restriction for us. ... Theoretically, we could be entering slippery territory every time we advertise with an apple."

It's true. And it's not the first instance of very basic design elements going to court.

Adidas took on designer Thom Browne over his use of horizontal stripes. That verdict ultimately went against the German sportswear brand on the grounds that Browne used four stripes instead of three after receiving Adidas' go-ahead. Adidas also recently went after the Black Lives Matter organization over using three stripes, too.

Even the heavy metal band Iron Maiden just filed a suit against a company called Maidenwear on the basis that the very use of the word "Maiden" could cause some people to incorrectly assume a partnership with the band.

But just how far can Apple go to keep a company that literally deals in fruit from using possibly the most ubiquitous fruit on the planet? And would that mean they go after others who use an apple in their branding in the future, too?