Since reporting on Prepear’s logo fight with Apple on the weekend, the pear company’s change.org petition seeking support has exploded, along with international media coverage on their situation.
Prepear is a meal planner and grocery app, a subsidiary of the Super Healthy Kids website. The pear logo and trademark application by Prepear is being opposed by Apple’s lawyers.
The change.org petition started by Prepear had just over 8,200 signature when the story was first reported on Saturday. As of writing on Tuesday, it has exploded to 46,168, getting closer to its next goal of 50,000 signatures.
Prepear’s COO, Russ Monson, pointed iPhone in Canada to Apple’s official opposition document. According to Apple’s filing, the pear logo is “likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive.”
“Consumers encountering Applicant’s Mark are likely to associate the mark with Apple. Applicant’s Mark consists of a minimalistic fruit design with a right-angled leaf, which readily calls to mind Apple’s famous Apple Logo and creates a similar commercial impression,” writes Apple’s lawyer on page 22 of its filing.
Monson previously explained to iPhone in Canada, “We aren’t asking for a boycott of Apple products, we are just asking that they stop attacking small businesses like ours in frivolous cases that seem designed to cause us to spend as much money and time thinking about the case instead of focusing on how to grow our business and ensure we survive the current economic crisis.”
The Prepear COO also shared some other examples from its own investigation of cases where Apple had opposed fruit logos from other companies, as seen below:
Prepear continued to say it will be “delivering the petition with signatures to Apple very soon,” and hopes Apple will drop the case before it drags on, resulting in more legal fees for the small company of five employees.
Taking a look at both of the main logos depicted above—do you see any similarities between them?
