Apple Takes Legal Action Against Small Meal-Prep Business, Claims Logo Is Too Similar
Apple is trying to stop a small meal-prep company from having its trademark application approved. A-pear-ently, the small business’ pear logo is too similar to the Silicon Valley’s fruity tech giant’s.
Prepear is an app built by Super Healthy Kids that allows users to save and organize recipes and easily create meal plans and grocery lists.
The app’s logo features a green pear outline with a leaf on the top right.
Apple said in a notice of trademark opposition that the fruit design of Prepear’s logo “readily calls to mind Apple’s famous Apple Logo and creates a similar commercial impression.”
“The Apple Marks are so famous and instantly recognizable that the similarities in Applicant’s Mark will overshadow any differences and cause the ordinary consumer to believe that Applicant is related to, affiliated with or endorsed by Apple,” the filing read.
The tech company is trying to block Prepear’s trademark application.
In a Change.org campaign, Super Healthy accused Apple of “abusing their position of power by going after small businesses like ours who are struggling due to the [effects] of Covid-19.”
“It is a very terrifying experience to be legally attacked by one of the largest companies in the world, even when we have clearly done nothing wrong, and we understand why most companies just give in and change their logos,” Prepear co-founder Russell Monson wrote.
The company is made up of five people, and one person already had to be laid off in order to pay legal fees, Monson said.
“We feel a moral obligation to take a stand against Apple’s aggressive legal action against small businesses and fight for the right to keep our logo,” he wrote.
“We are defending ourselves against Apple not only to keep our logo, but to send a message to big tech companies that bullying small businesses has consequences.”
Prepear Chief Experience Officer Brad Hoen shared the petition on his Facebook page and said he is “honestly hurt” by Apple’s opposition.
“This is a big blow to us at Prepear. To fight this it will cost tens of thousands of dollars,” Hoen wrote. “While the rest of the world is going out of their way to help small businesses during this pandemic, Apple has chosen to go after our small business.”
He added that the technology company claims to empower small businesses “when in reality they are a bully with a lot of money, and they could care less about small business creators.”
While he isn’t telling people to throw away their Apple devices or stop buying Apple products, he is hoping that “Apple will feel the affects of how they are hurting small businesses on weak claims, and do the right thing to stop hurting small businesses.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition had over 58,000 signatures.
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