Apple Files New Trademark Application for Classic 'Rainbow' Logo

Apple has applied for a new U.S. trademark for its famous multicolor logo for use on apparel, reports The Blast. The Apple filing was processed in December by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Reporting and Monitoring System (TRAM), and is now being considered for approval.

The description of the mark in the filing is of "an apple with a bite removed, with a detached leaf in green, and the apple divided into horizontal colored segments of the following colors (from top to bottom): green, yellow, orange, red, violet and blue".

According to the application, the logo will be used for headgear, namely, hats and caps. Apple already sells t-shirts with the same logo emblazoned on the front at its Apple Park Visitor Center, so the filing likely relates to a possible extension of the existing clothing line, although there's no saying whether Apple will actually use the trademark or just wants to protect it against unofficial use.

The classic multi-colored Apple logo was conceived by graphic designer Rob Janoff in 1977, but Steve Jobs axed the design when he returned to Apple in 1997 in favor of the monochromatic logo that continues to be used today.

Janoff's "rainbow Apple" was actually created as a more modern, albeit playful replacement for Apple's first logo, which was designed in 1976 by Apple co-founder Ron Wayne. Sometimes referred to as Apple's "fifth Beatle", Wayne famously sold his stake in the company two weeks after it was founded.

Wayne was a fan of the ornate line-drawing style of Victorian illustrated fiction, and used Sir Isaac Newton as the company’s symbolic bellwether, an apple hanging precariously above his head. A quote from Wordsworth embellishes the baroque frame: "A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone."

Tag: trademark

Top Rated Comments

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kplayaja

8 months ago

Love the rainbow.

Rating: 8 Votes

cw75

8 months ago

Interesting......I would've thought it was patented long ago.

Rating: 7 Votes

ex0dus1985

8 months ago

I can’t wait to buy some merchandise with the classic rainbow Apple!

Rating: 6 Votes

maflynn

8 months ago

I do love the old logo, I'd definitely like to see it used in some way

Rating: 4 Votes

timmyh

8 months ago

This old Apple computers logo is Newton sitting under the apple tree. So the current logo is the one from Garden of Eden which the serpent made Eve to bite.

Don't quote me, but I seem to remember reading that Janoff added the bite so that the apple wasn't mistaken for a cherry.

Rating: 3 Votes

actionmarker

8 months ago

Interesting......I would've thought it was patented long ago.

Logos are only trademarks not patents.
They also expire.

Rating: 3 Votes

PinkyMacGodess

8 months ago

I found, in the bottom of a box, my original Apple t-shirt with the rainbow icon. I forgot I had it, and love wearing it.

I wish they took the clothing accessory market more seriously. I mean, I've got the 'I visited' mothership shirt, and the mouse pad, and the mug, but I'd love Apple shoes, underwear, and a messenger bag. (I do have an original Apple lapel pin that came out around the time the original Mac did)

Tim! Dude! Make it happen! Please, pretty please!

I do also have a banner that Apple backed out on paying for according to the shop that made it. It's about 5 feet tall. So cool!