It's absurd; just from looking at the logos the viewer can clearly tell that one is a much larger apple than the other.

If Apple Co. wants to lay claim to all apple-related logos, including that of the Big Apple (a term in use since at least 1921), they can pry this Granny Smith out of my cold, dead hands. I'm thinking someone needs to organize a protest outside the Apple NYC stores. So much love (and money) we've given them here and this is how they repay us?

Well, the Apple Records trademark battle dates from the late 70's, and was a case of Apple Records suing Apple Computer. A judge back then determined that if Apple refrained from music distribution then Apple Music's brand would not be diluted. The settlement had to be revisited, of course, once Apple set up iTunes. I think Apple just negotiated rights to operate iTunes by showering money on Apple Records. The iPhone trademark case surfaced because Cisco had filed for that trademark already. Here, too, I think Apple just paid Cisco a bunch of money to use the name. This time it's Apple Computer who's being overly protective of their Trademark logo. I doubt the law will side with Apple on this one, but Apple may have felt they needed to sue just to show they were trying to protect their trademark. One of the ways you can lose rights to a trademark is through failure to protect it.

This is as bad as the magenta scandal over at Engadget, but no one at Gizmodo or Engadget will admit it, because it's Apple.

YEAH THOUGHT THAT BUS WITH THE NYC LOGO WAS A BIG IPHONE LOL OMG WTF.

Get bent.

I think the "Big Apple" is just as well known and tradmarked as "Apple" Will be very hard for apple to win.

well, why don't they sue every greengrocer who sell apples? :asd:

It's just a logo. I mean you have to be an Apple fanboy to connect the GreeNYC apple logo to the Apple logo. Apple is whining as usual.

I don't get what's so funny about the "infinite loop" part. What's funny?

Well, the last time I was in NY, I kept wondering where this "Big Apple" was (which I assumed was a 30" iMac).

Boy was I ever confused. I'm glad companies like Apple and T-Mobile are around to prevent me from getting confused.

apple continues to turn into a microsoft-like disagreeable company. i have a mac, but i am fed up with apples behaviour of limiting things, trying to get control over eveything and ripping off the customer. maybe it's time for someone else to create something like apple, but with a lot more "love" to the customer... any millionairs are welcome to get in contact with me, i know the formula ;-)

@quikboy:

well, the apple company is located at the "infinete loop" campus! on the other side it makes sense to use this metaphor, because green might mean recycling.

"While Steve's mob says the eco-logo will "seriously injure the reputation with which [Apple] has established for its goods and services." "

Because, you know, who would want to confuse Apple with a Green company? They fought hard for their 6 on the Greenpeace scale.

This whole thing really has less to do with Apple wanting to take over the world and eating your first-born children and more to do with some wannabe hotshot lawyer at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP trying to make a name for himself by manufacturing a lawsuit. The lawyer(s) in question probably wanted some more billable hours to submit to Apple, and decided to pick on the City of New York after one of them was on a coffee break outside and saw the GreeNYC logo on a billboard. Now that this case has been outed on the internets, I'm sure it'll go away pretty damn quickly, as Apple will call the aforementioned law firm and tell them to drop this crap.

Things like this happen ALL the time. Face it folks, lawyers got bills to pay. They can't just sit around and wait for a REAL case to land on their laps.

Someone needs to get over themselves.

What next, copyrighting colors?

(whispers)

Oh.

Apple is really taking all of this too far...
They are really becoming the thing they hated...only worse.
\

You guys don't see the resemblance?

:P

@weatherman:
So if they had used Apple's own logo, but just made it smaller than all the other places Apple uses their logo...

Hopefully you were joking and I just missed your humor.

They also need to sue this kid. Or maybe his parents. Clearly they don't understand that Apple owns the rights to anything resembling the ruby fruit we love so much.

@LJN: Er, this kid: [www.flickr.com]

In other news: Apple sues God. It seems that apples themselves infringe on Apple's registered trademarks. In response, God has commented publicly that "Windows is better anyway". Microsoft's stock was unaffected however. When questioned about this, one stockbroker's opinion is that "Job's IS God on Wallstreet! For Christ's sake, he made the AIR!"

@weatherman: You're making this personal. Business is not personal at all. Apple has to protect it's trademark or run the risk of loosing it. It's not like Jobs is sitting in his $10,000 Dodo bird leather chair wanting to spend millions of dollars on a lawsuit or wanting to make people hate him. If Apple doesn't try to protect it's trademark a judge could rule that Apple lost it's trademark in a future case, and that would be very bad for Apple. So while Jobs doesn't want this to happen he has to make it happen for the good of his company.

let nobody be in doubt,
the big apple came before the big one.

good for you NYC, that state is a tough one to mess with..

hahha..freudian slip ? reading too much Gizmodo?

I meant above:

let nobody be in doubt,
the big apple came before the little one.

Good for you NYC! That state is a tough one to mess with..

My first thought, was why are there two Apple, Inc. logos for the graphic image on this story?

I don't think Apple is gonna win this.

wasn't NY the "BIG APPLE" before Steve jobs was even born?

next on Apple's target list, Granny Smith

@packetsniffer: yes, joking. point was that NYC is the Big Apple so of course the logo is a representation of a bigger apple than that of Apple - y'know, like the picture of the apple would be a representation of one like 50 ft high, whereas Apple's logo is just a picture of an ordinary size apple, and you couldn't confuse that, see? funny? no? Well cut me a little slack, it was like 5:30 AM and I hadn't yet had my coffee.. :)

@hagrun: I'm more than a little peeved that a company would sue my town, which has been known as the Big Apple for nigh a hundred years, over a logo that includes a representation of an apple. I'm particularly annoyed because the logo was created to promote environmental issues, which has absolutely nothing to do with computers, mp3s, personal electronics, downloadable music or any other kind of business that Apple is involved in.

And that's the rub; a trademark infringement has to hinge on confusion in the market place and Apple's use of the apple as a logo is both particular to the design and in its use in a particular kind of business. Apple has no legitimate claim to the apple as a logo outside of what it does as a business, because it was granted the use of that mark only in certain sectors and Apple has no claim against any business outside of those categories for which Apple has been granted use of the mark. For instance, right around the corner from where I live is Apple Laundry. Can Apple sue them? well, of course they can and now they probably will (sorry Tim!) but they won't win because Apple Computers never applied to use the mark in a laundry business, and there is no chance that anyone would confuse a well run, friendly, family laundry service for Apple Computers. Nor would anyone confuse an entire city's environmental campaign with Apple Computers.

So basically this is just a waste of time and money - a spurious claim and an abuse of the legal system. More importantly for me, it wastes my money. So do I take it personally? Yes, because it affects me personally. And of course on a broader level it's yet another example of a corporation overreaching and throwing out legal threats and C&D letters willy nilly, just like T-Mo did to engadget and so many other corporations have done in the last couple of years under the guise of being "required to protect their marks."

All NYers should take this as a personal insult. Maybe a protest is in order, or maybe we should all individually just go by the Apple store and remind them that they're in our city, the Big Apple, by giving them an apple. A few thousand Giz readers doing that over the next couple of days might make an impression...

The unasked question here is why NYC designed an apple that looks like a green peach.

Are we merging with Atlanta and nobody told me?

@weatherman: On the plus side, I've worked with (read: against) City of New York lawyers before. They'd be wasting your money anyway.

as somewhat of a Apple fan boy, I came here to say "Apple you have got to be kidding, stop being d*cks!"

Many here have pointed out that it's been the Big Apple longer then that little tech company has been around. Seriously this is really annoying.

Why the fuss about this? Apple lawyers were just filing a formal opposition to the trademark application with the USTPO. They aren't suing NYC, so why are New Yorkers taking it as an insult. This is just trademark protection, a strategic move to maintain the strength of the Apple logo. Not taking action on trademarks has cost many a company the right to complain later when their trademarks suffer from "genericide." (see Xerox, Kleenex).

I personally found the Think Secret to be more repulsive because of the long term impact it could have had on 1st amendment jurisprudence. But they settled out of court. So back to Apple fanboy-ism everyone.

Sounds to me like someone is a bit jealous that someone else thought of the whole infinite Apple before someone else did. If I were someone, I would start talking to someone else about how to make better Apple logos for someone, if you someones know what I mean.

Calling a spade a spade: it's free publicity for all parties involved. It's really just abuse of the legal system for marketing purposes. I would love for a judge to find that not only is Apple's mark not in the environmentalism trade, they are now forbidden from making any claims of how eco-friendly their products are. Marketplace confusion is, after all, a two way street.

The NY apple logo looks like cartoon eyes.

I think part of it may be that to keep a trademark you have to defend it, and it's easier to challenge all potential entrants, even if you lose, than to not and risk loosing the trademark.

Granted I'm not a lawyer, but this is what I've been told.

@Samifumi: To be clear, this NY'ers only complaint is that our new green logo is lame.

...NYer's, even

They totally look the same! I guess if there was a bite out of the GreeNYC logo, it would be a finite loop, and there would be no problem. (Ha!)

Apple will probably lose this, but I think the game is to prove that they defended their trademark.

I like that logo... I guess they could invert it though, the stem does suspiciously lean to the right like AAPL's 0_0

Any other city and Apple might have a leg to stand on. But the apple has been a symbol of NYC for much longer than Apple has been around. If a place is know as The Big Apple, it is reasonable to expect their logo to include an apple.

But in defense of Apple. A company is required to defend their trademarks, otherwise they can lose them. Apple may actually be ok with this use, but legally needs to show some degeee of fight to protect their trademark from future misuse.

I woke up terribly confused this morning. I went to that fruit guy on the corner and was stupefied to discover that he had no computers to sell me, and I really needed a computer.

Then when I went to the Apple Store I couldn't find ONE SINGLE piece of fruit.

WTF? No apples at the apple store?

Thank God Apple is suing The Big Apple. I can't handle this level of confusion.

Life has gotten so crazy lately, I mean how am I supposed to tell the difference between a cool city's green campaign and a bunch of douches?

@Bender: Exactly! That's like Taco Bell suing Philadelphia because fo the Liberty Bell. Absurd!

@Geisrud: @Jasontrainer: LOL

@Way: Yeah, that's what I don't get. If this logo "injures" Apple's reputation, then what does that say about Apple's aspirations to be a Green company?

Well aren't you a peach Apple.

Note to CEO's. Don't fuck with companies using names for organizations/products that are in no way relevant to your own. Unless GreenNYC is a company selling computers, get your shit straight and fly right!

@Stacky Botrus: LOL.

@Jasontrainer: "Life has gotten so crazy lately, I mean how am I supposed to tell the difference between a cool city's green campaign and a bunch of douches?

No problemo! The douches are the ones who are always bitching about Apple no matter what, whereas the cool city's green campaign only bitches about Apple when Greenpeace is in the house and a camera is turned on.

@weatherman:
Haha, okay, sounds good :-D

do you like beans?
do you like george wendt?
would you like to see a bean eating movie staring george wendt?

oh yes!

I am so confused_

On one hand a sillouette of a bitten Apple w/ a leaf pointing to the right_

On the other hand "shape" of an apple with an "infinity loop" and a leaf pointing to the left w/ a stem pointing to the right_

then Apple resides at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino_

Apple is a computer company [even tho last years they claimed to have changed to a consumer device company]_

The city of NY is well a city run by some government_

Wait! what were we talking about again? I'm so confused !!

Ridiculous. Jobs should be beaten with something gas-powered and emissions-non-regulated.

Expect Jobs to be shaking little children at middle schools all over the country b/c of coloring in pictures of apples, or eating them in cafeterias. Does this guy not have enough money?

Another case of a big company trying to flex its muscles. The logo looks nothing like the Apple logo, has no resemblance other than the fact that it's an apple. Not to mention that it's a logo for a freaking green movement, not a logo for another COMPANY. Their grounds are baseless and I hope whoever hears the case hasn't been showered with Apple love in advance.

Man, I can't wait until the GreeNYC iPhone comes out! it's going to be so awesome.

The GreeNYC iPods are also excellent.

Normally I'm more of a linux guy, but I think I might go out and by a GreeNYC MacBook this week.

Um, NYC has been the Big Apple for longer than Apple Computers was a company. If anything, the city of New York should be sueing Apple.

Dear Apple,
April fools was 2 days ago. You're a bit late fool.