Apple sues Ukrainian director of superhero satire movie for brand damages
Being the world's most profitable company, Apple is constantly in a legal dispute with someone either on the lawsuit initiating (usually over its brand image) or on the lawsuit receiving side (usually with various patent trolls).
It has had its fair share of weird legal skirmishes on the initiating side over the years, like when it sued an obscure Norwegian phone repair shop, or when it went after Chinese leakers last year, or when it sued a food shop for using a pear-shaped logo, or when it chided a bike path sign in Germany, but its latest cease-and-desist affair is something else entirely.
Under the power of Apple's legal team is now one Ukrainian indie movie director - Vasyl Moskalenko - who raised $120,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to develop and launch an action comedy that satirizes those childish superhero movies we are inundated with from all sides, reports iPhone in Canada. The movie's Kickstarter project page lists its premise to be as follows:
APPLE-MAN is an action comedy film about a title character who is a superhero. What separates Apple-Man from any superhero movie is its strong social mission. It`s the first Healthy Lifestyle Superhero Film in the World. We created Apple-Man as a very entertaining way to tell people how important and how cool a healthy lifestyle is. We believe this film can save many lives. The film tells a grotesque story of a superhero created by mixing human DNA with the DNA of an apple. Along with his sidekick Cherry Woman, Apple-man fights super-villain Doctor Burgerman to save the universe.
Did you notice why Apple may have initiated court proceedings against the movie's trademark application approval by the USPTO that precedes its theatrical release? Yes, the movie is called "Apple-Man" and the lawyers from Cupertino are worried it can be "associated with, or approved, endorsed, or provided by Apple," according to the wordy 467-page court documents.
Mr. Moskalenko is not giving up on his superhero satire brainchild because he thinks if the trademark approval is struck down, Apple may go after the movie's release, too. In any case, this is way more publicity for the Apple-Man movie that he had probably envisioned when he embarked on making it.
After all, the movie's "main character is a superhero Apple-Man who has a superpower to levitate apples" with all the unforeseen consequences for the Apple brand stemming from his particular health craze. We kid, but what do you think, is Apple going too far worrying about its brand image this time around?
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