Apple lawsuit against ap.pl

弁護士

The principle (universal) on the matter is that a trademark is protected by the specific infringement action against any competitor and unauthorized sign, operated for identical or similar goods and / or complementary to its own and causing confusion with her in the minds of consumers. Infringement - legally speaking - means the servile or quasi-servile reproduction or the imitation of a previous trademark.

the simple or semi-figurative, national, international and Community "apple", "Apple" or "APPLE" trademarks are theoretically protected against any competitor signs - trademarks, company names, trade names, signs, acronyms, domain names ... or other denomination and sign - that could harm them, in all countries where they are in force.

In practice Apple Inc., which regularly holds all the branding "APPLE", is conducting a declared brands defense policy - that is perfectly normal and legitimate - in front of the ordinary judicial courts as before national and Community Offices (OHIM) and the arbitration and mediation centers such as WIPO. In late 2010 this company obtained from WIPO the transfer of the domain name "Appl.com" which was too close to their trademarks (Case D2010-1916).

Regarding the case in which you refer, "ap.pl" is phonetically and visually close to "apple" and is used to run an online shop offering maintenance services and accessories for mobile phone various brands. But in "ap.pl", "pl" is the part of the mandatory URL that refers to the country, namely "poland" and in addition, its Polish owner (Arthur Janiszewski) recorded "ap.pl" in 2002 and claims he is the acronym for "art production", his company, specializing in promotional gifts ...

This case is being handled by the Arbitration Court at the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunication ("Polska Izba Informatyki i Telekomunikacji") (Piit) headquartered in Warsaw. I do not know if the arbitration is subject to Polish law or another law ...

As this is an ongoing case, it would be futile and inappropriate for me to make forecasts and it will be more prudent to wait for the decision to be taken or consult a Polish specialist (IP lawyer, trademark attorney).

Apart from this case, I can only recommend not to register domain names or trademarks and more generally not to use and exploit sign built around a name similar to "APPLE" trademarks including notably "appl" and "apl" and likely to lead to a visual, phonetic and/or conceptual confusion with the "apple" marks in the minds of consumers, if you do not want to attract you the wrath of Appeal company lawyers …

Your sincerely,
Simon