Apple object to Prepear logo trademark, 'terrifying' small business owners

The Prepear logo (left) has been accused of bearing too close a resemblance to Apple's logo. Photo / Instagram@superhealthykids

One of the world's most valuable tech companies has filed a lawsuit to stop a small business from trademarking its logo.

Apple claims the "minimalistic fruit design" of Prepear's pear logo and its "right-angled leaf … readily calls to mind Apple's famous Apple logo and creates a similar commercial impression," according to Apple's notice of opposition before the US Patent and Trademark Office, obtained by MacRumours.

Prepear is a meal-planning app that lets users store and organise recipes and it relies on Apple's mobile App Store to deliver its app.

Apple also claimed its own Health app does a similar thing as Prepear and consumers could mistake it for one of its products because it seems like something the company would make.

The Health app "provides a central repository for health and fitness data … one of the categories highlighted on Apple's Health app is Nutrition".

Apple also claimed that "consumers readily associate the Apple marks with medicine, health, and general wellness".

Apple opposes the registration, claiming the logo is "likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception".

The Prepear app comes from Super Healthy Kids, a food blog started by dietitian and mother of four Natalie Monson.

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Dear Instagram Friends- I NEED YOUR HELP! I know there are a lot of heavy things going on in the world right now, and this is nothing in comparison, but I need your help in a situation that is affecting me, my family, and my coworkers. Please help! Many of you know that I started a business called Prepear almost 5 years ago. It is an app that you can store all your recipes in one place, plan your meals, make grocery lists, and get your groceries delivered all in one place. Recently @apple yes, The trillion dollar Apple, has decided to oppose and go after our small business’ trademark saying our pear logo is too close to their apple logo and supposedly hurts their brand? This is a big blow to us at Prepear. To fight this it will cost tens of thousands of dollars. The CRAZY thing is that Apple has done this to dozens of other other small business fruit logo companies, and many have chosen to abandon their logo, or close doors. 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. I’m not trying to get anyone to stop using or buying Apple products. I 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. 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. HOW YOU CAN HELP: 1 Sign the petition (link in my bio or in my stories) 2 Share that same link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. http://chng.it/QPd2mRYW #savethepearfromapple

A post shared by Healthy Kids Recipes•Routines (@superhealthykids) on Aug 7, 2020 at 12:56pm PDT

In a post on Instagram, Ms Monson has slammed the computing giant's claim, and said she felt a "moral obligation" to take a stand against it.

"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," Monson wrote.

"The trillion dollar Apple, has decided to oppose and go after our small business' trademark saying our pear logo is too close to their Apple logo and supposedly hurts their brand?

"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."

She alleged Apple had done a similar thing to "dozens of other small business fruit logo companies".

The app itself was sparked by the actions of another Big Five tech company, inspired by the halving of traffic to Ms Monson's blog after Facebook changed an algorithm.

"I wanted to build a platform for other bloggers to implement the same strategies I did so that when the algorithms change, when privacy regulations change, when the internet changes and you don't have control over your traffic and ad revenue, your business doesn't die," Monson wrote on the platform's website.

"Apple has been opposing small businesses with fruit related logos by starting expensive legal action even when those logos don't look anything like Apple's logo, or aren't in the same line of business as Apple at all," petition organiser and Prepear co-founder Russell Monson said on its Change.org page.

On Monday morning, the petition was racing to its target of 25,000 signatories, with more than 18,500 signatories.

The Apple logo is well known around the world and the company has sought to protect it in the past.

Last year the company objected to a trademark filing by a Norwegian political party that used an apple.

The company also objected to a trademark filed in 2018 for the Apfel Route cyclepath in Germany, a themed bike route through a large apple growing area of the country.