Almost everything Apple creates is patented and trademarked in an effort to ensure that other companies can’t steal its ideas (though they do). However, sometimes the folks in Cupertino hit a stumbling block. That’s what happened when Apple attempted to trademark its Music app icon recently, only to find that Myspace got there first.
Apple introduced the Music app to iOS last year with iOS 5, splitting music and videos into dedicated apps and killing off the iPod app that had been pre-installed on the iPhone since the original made its debut in 2007. The new icon features a music note — similar to that on the iTunes icon — emblazoned onto a fiery orange background.
Unfortunately for Apple, trademark judges feel the icon is too similar to a logo owned by Myspace, which also features a music note on an orange background. As you can see from the image above, they’re vastly different to anyone with remotely good vision. But judges feel that consumers may confuse the two.
The report read:
In view of the facts that the marks are similar, the goods and services are related and are encountered by the same classes of consumers, we find that applicant’s double musical note and design for “computer software [..]” is likely to cause confusion with the registered mark comprising a double musical note and design [..] for listening to MP3’s and for sharing MP3’s and music playlists with others.
Myspace’s logo originally belonged to a music service called iLike, which was acquired by the social network in 2009, then shuttered earlier this year, according to Gizmodo.
Via: Gizmodo
