Apple not happy with food company's logo

Apple is accusing a Chinese food company of trademark infringement over its fruit-themed logo. The Sichuan Fangguo Food Co., Ltd. uses a round red logo with a stem and leaf. Apple claims this logo borrows conceptual elements, specifically the leaf, from its logo.

Fangguo's CEO Zhao Yi disagrees. Zhao does admit the logo is supposed to represent an Apple (it is a food services company that makes noodles and flour), but his logo has a distinct stem, Chinese characters and is a different shape than Apple's logo. Zhao also notes that the logo was originally designed in the 1980s and transferred to Zhao in 1997.

Apple wants the company to remove the leaf from its logo, but CEO Zhao refuses to cave in to Apple's demand saying "I'm Fangguo, it's a fruit, if the leaf is removed, it'll just look like a bomb." Thus far, Apple's Chinese legal team has not followed up on this request.

[Via MacObserver]