In a nutshell: The logo dispute between Apple and meal-planning app Prepear could soon come to an end after a 30-day pause in court proceedings was requested so the companies can reach a settlement.
In August, Apple, a company with a market cap of $2.27 trillion, launched a trademark lawsuit against tiny app developer and fitness startup Super Healthy Kids over claims the logo used in its Prepear recipe app is based on Apple's.
Resemblance between the two logos are tenuous at best, other than they're both pieces of (different) fruit. Apple claims that Prepear's icon "consists of a minimalistic fruit design with a right-angled leaf, which readily calls to mind Apple's famous Apple Logo and creates a similar commercial impression." The latter point being pretty arguable; it would take longer to point out the differences than the similarities between the two images.
Super Healthy Kids launched a petition to convince Apple to drop the case. "We are a very small business with only 5 team members, and legal costs from our fight for the right of all small business owners to be able to develop their own logo without fear of frivolous litigation has already cost us many thousands of dollars and the very saddening layoff of one of our team members," writes app co-founder Russell Monson.
At the time of writing, almost 270,000 people have signed the petition, putting it within spitting distance of the 300,000 target.
As reported by MacRumors, the petition might not be necessary. Documents were filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board requesting trial proceedings be suspended for 30 days as the "parties are actively engaged in negotiations for the settlement of this matter. "
There's no guarantee an amicable settlement will be reached during the pause. Either side can resume proceedings at any time, and if no progress is made, proceedings will resume automatically on January 23---though the main trial briefs don't begin until October.