April 10, 2008 | Category: Logo Design News | Tags: Logo Design News

The battle of apple logos is heating up! It turned out Apple Inc., the innovative gadget company famous for Mac, iPod, and iPhone, is not happy with the latest environmental initiative of New York City a.k.a. the Big Apple.

GREENYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s recycling campaign to make this busy city a lot cleaner, healthier and more sustainable, is represented by a logo design featuring an apple shaped like the infinity symbol with a single leaf and a stem.

Now, The Tech Herald reported that Apple wants to monopolize this insignia so it filed a trademark infringement lawsuit with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office arguing it is too similar with its infamous emblem and as a result will lead to “consumer confusion resulting in damage and injury”. Moreover, this logo might hurt the distinctiveness of Apple logo.

Comparing the 2 logo designs, I don’t think it is confusingly similar with the Apple trademark. Perhaps, Apple is just too paranoid that it doesn’t want anybody to use this fruit anymore. Or maybe this is a simple legal ploy to warn other interested parties planning to use apples on their designs. Besides, GREENYC logo is not competing in the consumer electronics category so consumer confusion is very unlikely to occur.

Both parties are no stranger to trademark infringement. Apple had a trademark battle against the Beatles for decades while the government of New York recently accused the Brisbane City Council of copying its “I Love NY” logo.