A recent furore about apples and pears raises a number of
familiar themes: the scope of trade mark rights; trade mark
overreach; trade mark bullying; the PR aspects of trade mark
enforcement; the unconventional options available to those that are
totally outgunned in a trade mark dispute; and the effectiveness of
appealing to the court of public opinion.
In this case, Apple opposed a US trade mark application for a
trade mark comprising a pear logo. The trade mark application was
filed by a small (seemingly five-person) US company called Prepear,
although there does also appear to be a parent company involved
called Super Healthy Kids. The applicant offers a meal-planning
service, and this seemingly takes the form of an app that allows
users to discover new recipes, plan meals and source
ingredients.
