Apple: Have They Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew?

Apple Inc. ("Apple") is taking on apples everywhere in a truly bizarre trademark battle. Apple has now initiated proceedings in order to secure proprietary rights to the image of apples, the fruit, in Switzerland. Arguably, Apple has now become synonymous with phones, laptops, and with the image of an apple with a bite taken out.

While Apple owns the trademark rights for that logo, granting it the exclusive right to use that image in any form or manner, the move to secure its trademark rights to pictures of apples everywhere is unprecedented, to say the least. Through a trademark application in Switzerland, it is attempting to procure and secure rights over a photographic, true-to-life depiction of Granny Smith apples, an variety of the generic green apple.