

Bonn café stands up to Apple over trademark - denysonique
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20111026-38449.html

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Argorak
What this article fails to state is that its not about the "Apple" trademark.
Apple holds the trademark for "Apple Cafe" (background:
[http://blog.guifx.com/2009/06/03/the-apple-store-that-
almost...](http://blog.guifx.com/2009/06/03/the-apple-store-that-almost-was/))
in the corresponding category that the Apfelkind cafe is applying for (afaik
something like "entertainment and consumption"). So its not as arbitrary as
some try to put it. Whether the practice of holding to trademarks forever by
enforcing them makes sense is a different story.

~~~
ugh
Don’t you have to use a trademark if you want to keep it or am I thinking of
something else?

~~~
wisty
You have to enforce it, which is why companies are so aggressive with
trademarks. Patents are a different story.

~~~
ugh
That’s not what I mean. Here is what the Wikpedia article about trademarks
says: “Trademarks rights must be maintained through actual lawful use of the
trademark. These rights will cease if a mark is not actively used for a period
of time, normally 5 years in most jurisdictions.”
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Maintaining_rights>)

I’m not sure whether or how this applies to this case.

------
pbhjpbhj
There is no question that there will be any genuine consumer confusion in this
case. Apple are trying to extend the trademark beyond the bounds of propriety.

However, the limited contact I've had with German trademark law suggests that
Apple may win in their efforts to ruin this small delightfully styled
business. German trademark law appears to be extremely broken.

------
iradik
Article with photo of logo: [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/26/german-
family-owne...](http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/26/german-family-owned-
cafe-battles-apple-over-logo-dispute/)

~~~
adoyle
The site itself: <http://apfel-kind.de/>

------
kleiba
tl;dr:

Bonn café stands up to Apple over trademark

 _(No, really, the article has almost zero information besides a picture of
the logo of the café.)_

