A well-known computer company has told a Vancouver Island school to drop its apple logo.
The Victoria School of Business and Technology started using a blue and green apple logo in 2005, but two weeks ago the school received a cease and desist letter from Apple Inc. in the U.S., telling it to get rid of the logo.
“Your business logo…reproduces, without authority, our client’s Apple design logo which it widely uses. By doing so, you are infringing Apple’s rights, and further, falsely suggesting that Apple has authorized your activities,” Apple’s lawyer Stephanie Vaccari wrote in a letter to the school dated Aug. 26 and later posted on the school’s website. Christopher Boag, the school’s vice-president, said he knows the school can’t win in a lengthy legal battle with Apple Inc., but he believes the school’s apple is a unique logo.
“Our logo is unique and distinguishable in numerous aspects from the Apple logo including the acronym ‘VSBT’ being part of our logo. Are you suggesting that anyone using any variation of an apple for technology education is infringing on Apple’s trademark?” school president Dieter Gerhard responded in a letter also posted on the school’s website.
Boag said the cease and desist order is ironic considering the school uses a large number of Apple computers in its facilities. The school is asking the public what they think about the two symbols, with an informal poll on its website.
I would love to see this tested in court, I dont think Apple has a case. If I owned the school, I’d tell Apple to “Bite Me”.
Typical tyrannical fascist Steve Jobs bullying. Actions only the most rabid fanatical a**hole apple fanboy can defend.
I went to the site and voted against Apple. Har!
You can vote here.
It’s the detached leaf in the logo. Apple gets really pissy about it.
OMG FASCISM!!!
(lol)
Drop dead Apple. Quit wasting your time on stupid stuff like this and make better iPods.
Jobs reminds me of Branson who went on a rampage patenting the word “virgin” on anything he could.
I voted against them too. Dickwads.
Better they spend time making an iPhone that can send and receive MMS messages than wasting resources on nonsense like this.
They should sue every grocery store in the country, and the writers of the Old Testament for using the term….I am afraid to utter the word!
Has anyone noticed that the VSBT logo is ugly as hell?
Maybe Apple is doing them a favor here?
It’s a website design school, they use a lot of Apple Macintosh computers, they know about copyright, they tried to augment their business profile by adapting Apple’s logo.
Apple has to protect their copyrights otherwise they could lose them. Nothing big going on here, making news out of nothing. Quit whining folks.
Apple is right to do this.
Their ownership of their own logo and the public perception of their brand is being blurred by the clear similarity of this more recent logo in a related area of commerce (education) by people who should have known better.
A casual observer (the legal test of the reasonable man) might logically assume that VSBT were an extension of Apple Inc. Therein lies the problem.
If VSBT had used this logo in 1975, then Apple would have no case.
Fuck Apple.
#2 You linked to the results page. You have to vote from the main page.
screw them, they’re Canadians
Apple obviously is in the right here. Not only are they required to defend their trademarks and copyrights (or else risk losing them), but the school is a technology institution.
By using something that looks remarkably similar to the Apple logo (including the detached leaf and the dented base) they will unjustifiably project a message that they are somehow affiliated with Apple.
Quit moaning.
Great way to destroy your primary customer base. Can’t wait for the next board meeting where they decide to dump their Crapple Computers and get real ones.
Someone should remind Apple of how they stole their logo from the Beatle’s Apple Records and were sued over it back in the 80’s
They pointed the leaf in the other direction to see if this would satisfy Apple.
Silly me. Why should I expect to find geeks here who know anything about trademark law?
Would it make Apple any happier if the school changed their logo to something resembling the Windows logo?
#14 “A casual observer (the legal test of the reasonable man) might logically assume that VSBT were an extension of Apple Inc. Therein lies the problem.”
Maybe YOU would make that assumption, but don’t demean the reasonably intelligent men and women of the world by assuming we would.
For those saying Apple’s being stupid or arrogant on this, you might want to actually look at the facts of the case before “voting” on it (yeah, like that’s going to do anything for you…). Here’s one example of the use Apple is objecting to:
http://www.schoolvictoria.com/files/0064-web-VSBT_day_2007-11-20OFS_0045.jpg
Look at the bottom of the image. I have a hard time believing that the VSBT staff weren’t aware that those posters look pretty similar to some of Apple’s uses, the little bump in the middle notwithstanding. And when plastered with other logos of Apple partners and competitors it makes it even more likely.
Given that this logo is being used in some contexts where Apple’s logo is routinely used and the entire logo is not used in all contexts (thus omitting the obviously different parts), it seems that Apple is legally obligated to assert their trademark ownership unless they want to cede it.
My initial reaction was that this case was a load of hogwash until I saw pictures like these. Now I’m convinced otherwise. Amazing how Apple though gets its share of both irrational fans and irrational haters…
F Apple !
Check out the favicon at this address: http://www.nyhealth.gov/
All your apple belongs to me.
A reason that this lawsuit can not hold up is that the apple has been associated with teaching MUCH longer then it has ever been associated with computers. Being that VSBT is an educational institution certainly gives it credibility of using an apple as part of it’s logo.
Yeah it looks like the computer companies logo, but heck, it’s an apple. Most apples look similar.
Interestingly, this school teaches business on both PC and Mac. Maybe they should just change the logo and drop the Mac.
Didn’t Apple try to sue New York City over the Big Apple logo, what ever happened to that.