How many fruits can a company own? That’s the question that the creators of the Australian startup Pineapple they must be doing themselves.
The company, founded last year in Melbourne, aims to help its customers save money.
This is done with the help of an app, by which users can connect their bank accounts and monitor their expenses; the app encourages everyone to “save a pineapple (pineapple) per week ”to save money – «Pineapple» is the local slang for the AU $ 50 bill.
The Pineapple app was launched last week, but the company found it difficult to register the trademark: Apple lawyers opposed registration with the Australian court, preventing (at least temporarily) the company’s founders, Kari Marsden and Luke Campbell, from using it. the word «Pineapple» as the name of the operation.
Apple did not comment on the case, but it is clear that, for Apple, having another technological company using the name of another fruit (containing the suffix “apple”) is enough to cause confusion in consumers’ minds – even if the company in question is a small startup Australian company that does not compete in basically any area with the Cupertino giant (someone could name the Apple Card, but they are totally different services).
The co-founders of Pineapple, of course, didn’t like Apple’s attitude at all.
To Herald Sun, Marsden stated the following:
Apple was young once – they were an innovative company and chose a very unusual name.
We imagine that they would support a startup like ours.
Now, Marsden and Campbell will need to hire a lawyer to dispute the trademark in court with Apple – a battle that, according to the co-founders, could last at least a year.
What a thing …
via Apple World Today
