Apple Sued This Company For Selling 'Steve Jobs' Branded Jeans, But They Failed Spectacularly
Apple tried to sue for their co-founders trademark to be returned and failed.
If you ever find yourself shopping for designer clothing in Italy, don¡¯t be surprised if you come across the brand ¡®Steve Jobs¡¯.
Business Insider Italy
No, Apple hasn¡¯t silently been selling their late co-founders iconic black turtleneck as chic. What¡¯s actually going on is that this is an entirely unrelated company, one that just thought the name had a nice ring to it and decided to claim it as their own.
Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato were in the process of starting their own clothing and accessories company in 2012 and were casting about for ideas on what to name it. It was at that time, they noticed Apple had never trademarked Jobs¡¯ names, and they decided ¡®Steve Jobs¡¯ sounded like a good designer brand name.
REUTERS
As you would expect, Apple sued the brothers over the trademark, but they may have made a critical mistake in the framing of their lawsuit. They attacked the clothing line¡¯s logo, which has a bite taken out of the J, as well as it being topped by a leaf, very much like Apple¡¯s own logo. Unfortunately for the tech corporation, the court ruled that the letter ¡°J¡± isn¡¯t naturally something edible, therefore the bite taken out of it isn¡¯t stealing Apple¡¯s logo. The brothers won the lawsuit and got to keep the name.
The two are still marketing products under the name, including, t-shirts, jeans, bags, and more. However, the two recently mentioned to Business Insider Italia that the goal for their brand is to eventually release electronics as well, though they don¡¯t detail their plans.
That means Italy could one day have a Steve Jobs store selling power banks, right next to an Apple store.
