In what has already been a big week for them following Justin Timberlake’s new teaser, MySpace makes its way back into the news as they now have become the reason why Apple is unable to trademark their orange music icon.
The icon is featured on most IOS devices, but because trademark judges feel that consumers might confuse the logo with one owned by MySpace, Apple’s request was denied. The two icons do share similar features, being that both are orange squares that bear a musical eighth note, but differences are seen in the color of the music notes and the angles of the notes.
Apple argued that no one has ever confused the two logos but the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board disagreed and stated:
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.
