An Italian clothing company called “Steve Jobs” (no, really) has won a trademark battle against Apple and can now use the company’s name and and Apple-inspired logo on whatever they please.
Two Italian brothers, Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato, noticed that Jobs’ name wasn’t trademarked in 2012, so they decided to use the name for their company, Business Insider Italia reports Apple has fought the brothers over their logo in court for years. The logo includes a “J” that looks like an apple with a bite out of it.
Amazingly, the Barbato brothers’ use of “Steve Jobs” and a blatant version of Apple’s logo were deemed to not be a trademark breach by the EU’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.
Apple challenged the company by claiming its logo infringed on its own trademark. However, despite the “leaf” and the indentation on the Italian company’s logo, the fact that it was a letter rather than a fruit, meant it was not deemed to breach Apple’s.
“The letter J seems ‘bitten’ but it is not, since a letter, as judges have also decided, can not be bitten,” the brothers told Business Insider Italia. Their company makes jeans, T-shirts and bags, and carries a series of quotes from Jobs himself.
