Apple goes after Chinese food company for trademark infringement

When Apple went after Samsung for allegedly copying their product designs, we understood. When you go after a rival – especially in this case, where your rival’s products look like yours – it’s business. And if your move disrupts your rival’s efforts in a region, then it turns out to be a smart move. Then they moved to shut down a number of Chinese stores that looked like official Apple Stores – still an expected business move. But now, Apple’s going after Sichuan Fangguo Food Co., Ltd, a Chinese company who produces noodles and flour because… well, their logo looks too similar to Apple’s. Are Apple’s lawyers bored or what?

According to this report, Apple’s Chinese lawyers say that Fangguo’s logo uses “conceptual elements taken from the computer company’s.” Fair enough. Kind of. Fangguo’s logo was meant to resemble an Apple after all, complete with a leaf and a missing corner bottom-left corner that may or may not have been pulled from the iconic “bite” on Apple’s logo.

Still, it seems a little too extreme. First of all, Apple doesn’t use red on their logos. Also, we don’t think anyone’s going to confuse the Apple found behind their Macs with the “apple” Fangguo uses on their noodles. Lastly… if anyone’s going to be upset over logo look-alikes, shouldn’t LG be in on this thing too? If you squint a little, it looks like Fangguo’s logo could be the bastard son of the “Apple” and LG’s smiling-face-thing logo.