‘Steve Jobs’ Is Now A Fashion Label And Apple Is Powerless To Stop It

As one of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world, Apple usually wins any battle it gets involved in, whether it’s legal or corporate. However, one Italian fashion company just crippled the iPhone maker’s ability to prevent it from using the name “Steve Jobs” for its label. What’s more, the two brothers who started the company intentionally used the Apple founder’s name knowing the full implications of that choice.

The brothers who are starting the “Steve Jobs” fashion company are Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato. The two are veterans in the fashion industry, designing clothing and accessories for other companies. In 2012, the pair chose the late Apple CEO’s name after noticing that the company had not filed a trademark for it, The Verge reports.

So when they finally decided to start their own brand, the Barbato siblings decided that the name would be perfect. Naturally, Apple sued the brothers for supposedly infringing on its trademark. Unfortunately for the Cupertino firm, the court sided with the defendants over a rather odd technical detail.

As the Italian publication, la Repubblica Napoli reports, Apple tried to hammer the siblings for their use of a logo with the letter “J” that had a bite on its left side that seems to mimic Apple’s own logo. It even had what looked like the Apple leaf on the top. This backfired on the company, however, when the court decided that the letter “J” was not edible. This meant that the logo was not a rip-off of Apple’s.

Speaking to Business Insiders Italia, the two further taunted Apple by saying that they are planning to eventually launch tech products. As such, there could one day be a smartphone under the “Steve Jobs” brand competing with the iPhone by Apple’s Steve Jobs. It’s certainly an odd situation all around.