Apple are well known for trademarking and patenting their items. They’ve already trademarked the leaf of the Apple logo and even registered a patent for the shape of the iPad, so it comes as no surprise to hear they’re adding another to the list… this time… THE SHOP!
Yep they’ve been granted a trademark for a retail store featuring computers: more specifically the design and layout of the Apple store – the shelves, arrangement of tables, storefront and positioning of products.
This means that, should you feel the urge to have a store with, ‘rectangular tables arranged in a line in the middle of the store parallel to the walls and extending for the storefront to the back of the store‘ then you’ll be breaching Apple’s intellectual property.
Apple originally filed for the trademark in December 2010, however it’s only just been granted. The trademark applies to the US solely at the moment but Apple have filed an international application which will affect several European countries as well as China.
So why have they done this? It’s thought that the emergence of many stores in China copying the design of the Apple Store is to blame and Apple wants to protect the brand and all associated with it.
They obviously don’t believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! What are your thoughts though?
can I be the first to congratulate Apple for being utter to$$ers
apple do this on there products and now shops due to everyone else copying them….
just look at a windows store and you can see why…
I was starting to wonder why there was a large amount of MobileFun reviews on this site. Biased much?
Towards what? MobileFun don’t make products. Would you prefer it if we had writers that didn’t work in the industry talking about these topics? What’s wrong with bringing in people with a good working knowledge of these things giving your their opinion?
It’s all about ethics. Most companies, inc those in the same industry, do everything they can do distance themselves from suppliers and advertisers. A MobileFun employee is now responsible for articles on this site and MobileFun provide you with products too. There is no editorial independence as they are now the same thing. Visitors can’t trust this is its already a step too far. Employing writers that work within an industry you report on is a big red flag. Especially when it’s factual reporting vs opinion or punditry.
Only my opinion of course but the classless, abrupt replies to comments on some other stories recently prove that your team don’t care about readers opinions.
Hey Dodgy,
I understand your point and I’m sure others may feel the same – however working at Mobile Fun is my day job. I’m actually a trained Journalist so any writing I do on this site is done in my personal time and is 100% separate from my day job at Mobile Fun.
I’ll never be reporting on or reviewing any items from MF and I wouldn’t have it any other way. There never has and never will be any bias towards MF on this site.
Hope this clears a few things up for you and thanks for reading my article 🙂
Laura
The issue isn’t what your qualifications are Laura, it is that whether it deliberate or not, conscious or not, writers here will know that their writing now affects you directly. It’s not possible to distance anyone from that no matter how much you protest.
Editorial and subject should _always_ be kept seperated. If you’re a trained journalist, then you should know that.
Appreciate your input and I’ll take it on board.
I can see your concern for our editorial independence. Quite a few of the writers here work in the industry in one way or another, or have worked in the industry before. The question is, where you would draw the line.
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that anything will change, but I am curious to hear your thoughts. In this case, the article had nothing to do with the authors day job, but then you’ll find that for the most part none of the articles have any bearing on our day job. If its more of a concern that we’re promoting one site over another, wouldn’t that be a case for making Google or Amazon your friend for checking out comparative prices?