Two Italian brothers have won a protracted legal battle against Apple which enables them to call their company ‘Steve Jobs,’ after the computer giant’s revered founder.
The battle in the courts began in 2012 when Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato realised that Apple had failed to trademark Jobs’ name, La Repubblica Napoli (in Italian) reported.
‘We did our market research and we noticed that Apple, one of the best known companies in the world, never thought about registering its founder’s brand, so we decided to do it,’ the pair told the newspaper.
Brothers Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato were quick to trademark the Steve Jobs name
Models are pictured wearing some of the designs from brothers’ clothing range. The court battle revolved around a bite taken out of the ‘J’ – as seen as the top of this t-shirt (right)
At the time the brothers were launching their own clothing and accessory company after spending years creating products for other brands. Apple almost immediately took legal action against them.
The arguments in court revolved around the use by the brothers of the Apple trademark.
The tech giant argued that the brothers were wrong to use a Steve Jobs logo stylized letter ‘J’ with a bite taken out of the side. The logo features what one commentator described as a ‘very Apple-esque leaf’.
However, the court ruled that because the letter ‘J’ is not edible, they could not realistically be accused of stealing Apple’s iconic logo. It said the brothers should be free to carry on using their trademark.
There has been no comment from Apple in relation to the court ruling.
The pair say they are now determined to continue working on products under the Steve Jobs brand, with plans to launch bags, t-shirts, jeans and other fashion accessories.
They told local media that in the long term they may also launch a Steve Jobs mobile phone which may compete in stores with the iPhone.
‘We are working on a line of highly innovative electronic devices, projects we have been working on for years,’ the pair said.
The Steve Jobs clothing brand was launched in 2012 in Italy
The brothers’ Steve Jobs logo is pictured on the jeans which feature in their clothing range
Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, died in 2011 from pancreatic cancer