London: Tech large Apple is reportedly attempting to realize mental property (IP) rights over depictions of apples, the fruit, which has left a fruit farmer’s organisation in Switzerland nervous.
According to a report in Wired, the Fruit Union, the oldest and largest fruit farmers’ organisation in Switzerland, is worried that it might have to vary its brand as a result of the iPhone maker is making an attempt to safe IP rights for “a realistic, black-and-white depiction of an apple variety known as the Granny Smith”.
“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,” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariethoz was quoted as saying.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s data, Apple has made related requests to dozens of IP authorities world wide.
Authorities in Japan, Turkey, Israel, and Armenia have already accepted their destiny, albeit reluctantly.
“Apple’s quest to own the IP rights of something as generic as a fruit speaks to the dynamics of a flourishing global IP rights industry, which encourages companies to compete obsessively over trademarks they don’t really need,” the report famous.
The tech large had submitted an utility to the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in 2017, requesting the IP rights for a sensible, black-and-white depiction of an apple selection often known as the Granny Smith — the generic inexperienced apple.
“The request covered an extensive list of potential uses — “totally on digital, digital, and audiovisual client items and {hardware},” based on the report.
The Swiss institute partially granted Apple’s request final yr, saying that Apple might have rights regarding solely among the items it needed. Apple later filed an enchantment.
According to the Fruit Union, there is no such thing as a readability on what makes use of of the apple form Apple will attempt to shield.
“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. That would be a very, very big restriction for us,” Mariethoz was quoted as saying.
Apple didn’t touch upon the report.
