Apple's TV show has a logo that looks suspiciously similar to Elon Musk's Boring Co. While this is raising serious criticisms, present circumstances might not really put Apple in trouble in the legal sense.
Apple TV+ has a new series coming this fall featuring some of the newest and most talented of artists. Even though this is eliciting some serious excitement, the production logo is raising some eyebrows.
The logo of "The Morning Show" looks like the logo of Elon Musk's "The Boring Company" and some think this is tacky on Apple's part. The layout of the show's logo even looks very similar to the Boring Company's logo plus the shaded letter "O" is apparently the same. In addition, the rectangular shape of the design is alike.
Some may defend Apple by claiming The Boring Company's logo is too minimalist, so any company can unknowingly copy it, especially since Apple is known for being big on minimalism. Others claimed that certainly, Apple would never greenlight something that is just stolen.
As of now, no legal consequences can be borne by the Apple company just yet.
Notably, neither Apple nor The Boring Company has a registered trademark yet, although the former's logo registered soon and the graphic mark be registered soon, according to records at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
In examining its filing, The Boring Company described its trademark this way: "Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark. The mark consists of the terms "THE BORING COMPANY" in black and white. The article "THE" appears on the top left side of the term "BORING" and the term "COMPANY" appears in the lower right side. The vowel "O" in "BORING" is shaded."
On the other hand, Always Smiling Productions, Inc, which is the production company behind "The Morning Show," said too that it had already filed a standard character trademark for the name of the show back in February 2019. It was specified that the trademark only covered the words and none of the design elements.
Apple is not likely to get into trouble yet, though. Legal conditions governing logos have it that no matter how much two logos look alike, this should not be a problem if the companies do not sell or produce the same classes of goods, and therefore will not have customer bases that can feel confusion because of the similarity.
"The Morning Show" logo will be used and was filed for audio and video recordings, broadcasting, and ongoing TV drama series and other entertainment services. The Boring Company's logo is not registered for such. Instead, it will be for the company's R&D and other activities in the industry of high-speed transportation of passengers and goods, a far cry from what "The Morning Show" logo is all about.
