Apple is trying to flex its legal muscles and worldwide influence to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of apples - that’s right, the fruit.
In Switzerland, the Fruit Union Suisse uses a symbol of a red apple with a white cross - the Swiss national flag superimposed onto an apple, in other words. The group has over a hundred years of history and is now worried it may have to change its logo due to Apple’s insistence on trademarking fruit.points out that this is actually not an isolated incident - but rather that Apple has made similar demands to IP authorities around the world with varying degrees of success.
It’s true that FUS’s logo indeed lacks the iconic ‘bite’ taken out of it, as seen in Apple’s own logo. Apple’s quest to own the IP rights to something as universally generic as an actual piece of fruit speaks volumes to the company's sense of self-importance, and the assumption that because it’sApple, one of the biggest tech firms in the world, it can simply bully government organizations into doing as it pleases.
These current efforts to secure a trademark in Switzerland go as far back as 2017, when Apple submittedto the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property requesting IP rights for a realistic, black-and-white depiction of a Granny Smith apple - a very generic apple, in other words. The request covered a multitude of uses like electronic, digital, and consumer goods.