Furthering its relationship with the highly-sought-after education market, Apple Computer is applying legal pressure to a Vancouver Island post-secondary school it claims has ripped off its logo.
“Your business logo…reproduces, without authority, our client’s Apple design logo which it widely uses. By doing so, you are infringing Apple’s rights, and further, falsely suggesting that Apple has authorized your activities,” Apple’s lawyer Stephanie Vaccari wrote in a letter to the Victoria School of Business and Technology dated Aug. 26 and later posted on the school’s Web site.
Of course, Apple has been well “schooled” in copyright issues, ever since the Beatles first started crying foul over founder Steve Jobs’ use of what it considered a trademark of its record company (and then again, when it launched iTunes).
Thank goodness this was cleared up, though, because it’s easy to see how the Victoria School of Business and Technology and Apple HQ could be confused. Both are on the West Coast, both are filled with young keeners carrying iPods and iPhones, and both could come up with nothing better than a fruit to symbolize their core competency. Let’s hope Apple’s trademark sharks keep their eye on similar infractions. You wouldn’t want to give Steve Jobs a heart attack!
