The war for the apple is already a reality in Switzerland. Farmers and greengrocers from the Alpine country have stood up to Apple for its attempt to gain exclusive image rights to this fruit in the country, as denounced by the Swiss Greengrocers Union, which wants to continue using its logo.
This 111-year-old organization that promotes the interests of fruit growers in the country has as its symbol a red apple with a white cross. The logo was slightly revised in 2011 to celebrate the organization’s 100th anniversary and bears little resemblance to Apple’s iconic bitten apple image.
The director of the Swiss Greengrocers Union, Jimmy Mariethoz, has lamented the conflict: “It is difficult for us to understand it, because it is not that they are trying to protect their bitten apple,” he assured, but that Apple’s objective “is to own the rights to an apple real”, a move that this farmer organization considers unacceptable.
“For us, the apple is something really almost universal… that should be free to use for everyone,” Mariethoz points out about the symbol, which would be in danger due to Apple’s ambitious exclusivity strategy, since this company has done the same in Armenia, Israel, Japan and Turkey.
The head of the entity that protects the interests of greengrocers in Switzerland warns of his position: “We are concerned that any visual representation of an apple, that is, anything audiovisual or linked to new technologies or the media, could be affected,” he says.
For the moment, Apple’s request that the use of the apple symbol can only be used by the company has only been partially granted, although the technology giant has already filed an appeal to gain full control of the intellectual property.
