Infinity Apple (GreeNYC symbol, 2007)
In 2007, NYC & Co. (New York City’s tourism bureau, formerly the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau that re-popularized “the Big Apple” in the 1970s) promoted “GreeNYC,” a campaign to show that New York is a “green” or environmentally friendly city. The trademarked symbol of GreeNYC was the “infinity apple”—an apple drawn with an “upside down number eight,” the symbol for the number infinity.
In 2008, the computer company Apple Inc. challenged the trademark application, claiming that its apple trademark would be infringed by the “inifinity apple.”
GreeNYC
(“Infinity apple” is shown on the left—ed.)
Wikipedia: Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL, LSE:0HDZ, FWB:APC), formerly Apple Computer Inc., is an American multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronics and closely related software products. Established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976, Apple develops, sells, and supports a series of personal computers, portable media players, mobile phones, computer software, and computer hardware and hardware accessories. As of September 2007, the company operates about 200 retail stores in five countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. The iTunes Store provides music, music videos, television programs, movies, podcasts, iPod games, and audiobooks, which can be downloaded using iTunes on Mac or Windows, and also on the iPod touch and the iPhone. The company’s best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of personal computers, the iPod line of portable media players, and the iPhone. Apple’s software products include the Mac OS X operating system, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio- and film-industry software products.
The company, incorporated January 3, 1977, was known as “Apple Computer, Inc.” for its first 30 years. On January 9, 2007, the company dropped “Computer” from its corporate name, reflecting the company’s ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Last updated April 3, 2008 7:48 p.m. PT
Apple Inc. files challenge to New York’s ‘Big Apple’ logo
Apple Inc. filed a federal challenge to New York’s trademark application for a new “Big Apple” logo, saying it’s too similar to the stylized emblem found on iPhones, iPods and iMac computers.
Apple said the symbol for New York’s “GreeNYC” initiative promoting energy efficiency and recycling is confusingly similar to the logo used by the electronics maker since 1977.
NYC & Company Inc., the city’s nonprofit tourism and marketing office, filed the trademark application in May, playing off of New York’s “Big Apple” nickname. New York already has begun using the logo, which morphs the symbol for infinity (similar to a figure 8 on its side) with the outline of an apple, a stem and a single leaf.
Forbes
Thomson Financial News
Apple Inc. opposes Big Apple’s logo
04.04.08, 6:00 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Apple Inc. says The Big Apple is worming into its territory with a logo the city is using for its green living campaign.
Apple on Friday renewed its challenge to a trademark registration application that New York City filed last May, saying the apple logo was too similar to its own.
Both logos depict a plump apple with a leaf. Apple’s logo is white, with its signature bite mark, while New York City’s proposed trademark is a green, figure-eight outline reminiscent of an infinity sign, with a stem, and the word ‘greeNYC’ under it.
Apple’s challenge, filed in January with the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, says the company will be ‘damaged’ if the trademark is granted. The city responded, alleging one of Apple’s trademarks was fraudulently acquired. Apple disputed that allegation in another filing Friday.
‘We believe the infinity apple design and its mission to create environmental awareness are unique and distinctive and do not infringe upon the Apple Computer brand,’ Kimberly Spell, spokeswoman for NYC & Co., the city’s marketing arm, said in a statement.
The city’s logo was meant to invoke thoughts of upstate New York’s bucolic rural areas, where apple orchards once delivered much of the nation’s crop, Spell later said in an interview with The Associated Press. The idea came from the city’s longtime nickname, The Big Apple, she said.
Any proceeds from the campaign will be used to plant trees, and have nothing to do with computers, Spell said Friday.
New York (NY) Times - City Room blog
April 4, 2008, 4:40 pm
It’s Like Comparing Apples to Apples
By Jennifer 8. Lee
(...)
The GreeNYC campaign filed its application for its logo with the United States Patent and Trade Office in May 2007, while Apple’s opposition was filed four months later, on Sept. 18. Next step, apparently, is to commission independent surveys, known as mall-stop surveys, to see if people really are confused between the two apples.
Let’s see why they wouldn’t be.
. The Apple logo has a bite out of it. The GreeNYC logo is pleasantly round, no bite.
. The Apple logo, once in rainbow, has now been sliding out in the black-white spectrum over the last 10 years. The GreeNYC logo is, well, green.
. (This one is less important). Apple logo has just a leaf (right facing). The GreeNYC logo has a leaf (left-facing) and a stem.
. The Apple logo encourages people to drop hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on electronic gadgets they may or may not need (more energy consumption). GreeNYC apple will be used to encourage people to walk, bike and unplug appliances when not in use (less energy consumption).
The two logos have more differences than a Granny Smith and a Red Delicious. They are nowhere as similar as, oh say, “iPhone” to “iPhone” (from Cisco’s perspective) or Apple to Apple (from the Beatles’ perspective).
And let’s leave the Apple Bank out of it, for now.
If anything, the Beatles’ Granny Smith logo is more akin to the GreenNYC logo: at least it’s both green and round.
We’re not sure if Apple believes its potential customers are really that easily confused.
And New York has a longstanding claim on the apple — one that stretches decades before Steve Jobs was even born.
As the cultural etymologist Barry Popik points out, the term, “the Big Apple” was being used in the 1920s in a newspaper column, having grown out of a reference by stablehands in New Orleans.
Trademark
Word Mark GREENYC
Goods and Services IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Publications, namely, brochures, booklets, and teaching materials in the field of promoting business, tourism, economic development and education on environmentally friendly policies and practices of the City of New York
Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS
Design Search Code 05.09.05 - Apples
Serial Number 77179887
Filing Date May 14, 2007
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition April 1, 2008
Owner (APPLICANT) NYC & Company, Inc. NON-PROFIT CORPORATION NEW YORK 810 Seventh Avenue, 3rd Floor New York NEW YORK 10019
Attorney of Record Katherine Winningham
Description of Mark Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark. The mark consists of stylized apple design.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
Trademark
Word Mark GREENYC
Goods and Services IC 021. US 002 013 023 029 030 033 040 050. G & S: Beverage glassware; Thermal insulated containers for food or beverage; Glass beverageware; Dishes and plates
IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: Sweat shirts; T-shirts; Caps
IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Promoting the economic development in the City of New York; Promoting public awareness of policies and practices of the City of New York in the field of environmentally sustainable growth
Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS
Design Search Code 05.09.05 - Apples
Serial Number 77975167
Filing Date May 14, 2007
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition April 1, 2008
Owner (APPLICANT) NYC & Company, Inc. NON-PROFIT CORPORATION NEW YORK 810 Seventh Avenue, 3rd Floor New York NEW YORK 10019
Attorney of Record Katherine Winningham
Description of Mark Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark. The mark consists of stylized apple design.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE