Apple Sour on Canadian Tech School's Familiar Logo

A Vancouver, British Columbia school is facing an uphill battle after tech titan Apple recently told them it was considering legal action over the institution's use of a very familiar logo.

The Victoria School of Business and Technology -- a computer school -- uses a logo that strongly resembles Apple's own. However, there are critical differences: although Apple's apple features the famous bite-mark and can be typically found in solid red or a transparent shade, the British Columbia school's logo is slightly smaller, can be identified by its green and blue colors, and includes the letters "VSBT" -- Victoria School of Business and Technology -- within the apple shape.

Ironically, the computer school's logo is whole, leaving it up to Apple to figuratively (and financially) take a bite out of the VSBT.

For its part, the school was shocked by news that Apple was seriously considering legal action. Dieter Gerhard, the school's president, told Canada's CTV News "We were absolutely shocked." Gerhard, clearly a bit surprised such a big company would take notice of a small school, snipped, "Here's the bigger guy Goliath really coming down on little guy David." (Source: theglobeandmail.com)

Gerhard and the Victoria School of Business and Technology, which first used the logo only three years ago, deny they were ever inspired by Apple's famous delicious. Gerhard admits that the outline is clearly an apple, but notes the different shape, the mountain design within, the school's acronym, and the unique colors. "We're saying no one can use an apple for anything any more?" Gerhard asked, rhetorically.

Apple lawyer Stepanie Vaccari is leading the company's charge against the VSBT. In a letter, her firm alleges, "Your business logo... reproduces, without authority, our client's Apple design logo which it widely uses." To continue to use that logo, Vaccari and Apple argue, "you are infringing Apple's rights, and further, falsely suggesting that Apple has authorized your activities." (Source: p2pnet.net)

It's hard to imagine the VSBT's use of an apple-shaped logo could really hurt Apple's booming business, but that might be left for a court of law to decide in the near or distant future.