A Chinese clothing company is suing Apple over the App Store logo, alleging that the icon is violating Chinese copyright law and infringing upon its intellectual property.
The clothing brand, Kon, claims that Apple’s new App Store logo released earlier this year too closely resembles its own logo — which it owns a trademark for in its home country of China. Kon is demanding that Apple publicly apologize and pay damages, Phone Radar reported. In addition, the clothing company is asking for an injunction against infringing devices, which includes iOS, macOS and Apple’s other operating systems, in addition to related marketing material.
Apple updated the logo for the App Store in August, during the beta testing of iOS 11. The change included a switch from the old crossed paintbrush, pencil and ruler icon to a more abstract logo made up of three rounded sticks that form an “A” or a triangle.
Kon’s logo, on the other hand, looks very similar. It’s supposedly three skeleton bones symbolizing power over death. It’s worth noting, at this point, that Kon’s was founded in 2009 and is inspired by the punk song “Anarchy in the UK“ by The Sex Pistols, according to Chinese Wikipedia analog Baidu Baike.
Reportedly, the case has been accepted by the Beijing People’s Court. Phone Radar, which first broke the story, expects a judgment to be rendered in the next few weeks.
Apple is no stranger to lawsuits or Chinese copyright laws. Last year, the Cupertino tech giant lost the local trademark for the “iPhone” brand to a Chinese leather goods maker. In that case, Apple chose to settle out of court with the leather vendor, striking a deal that allowed it to continue using the name “iPhone” for its flagship product in China.
A similar deal is likely for this case, as Apple probably doesn’t want to revert to the old App Store logo — a move that could cost the company millions to rebrand.
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