Apple has sent legal correspondence to the organiser of a London based Apple Expo warning them that use of the name Apple is a trademark infringement.
However, this hasn’t stopped Microsoft booking a stand at the newly renamed Appule Expo that will take place in London this October. This will be the first Mac show to run in London since 2008. The Mac Expo show was last run London in 2007, then renamed Creative Pro Expo in 2008 before ceasing. The Apple Expo show last ran in Paris in 2008.
The Appule Pro User Live Expo will take place at The Barbican in London on 11 and 12 October 2012. According to the website it is “strictly for professional Apple Computer users only”. However, the iPad, iPhone and iPod are not forgotten: “Design, print, publishing, audio, video, photo, web. PLUS business applications & specialist products. PLUS iPhone, iPad, iPod for business – all under one roof for two days,” states the website.
Tickets will go on sale in June. Subscribers to Macworld can apply for free admission to Appule.
The show can’t be called Apple Expo because Apple has sent legal correspondence to organiser Indigo Media, warning of potential trademark infringement, according to reports.
Microsoft is said to be planning to showcase its Office for Mac products at the Appule show, which may suggest that a Mountain Lion enhanced update to the Office suite is in the pipeline before October. Microsoft is also said to be working on Office tools for iPad and iPhone, which it may be planning to demo at the UK show.
There is zero chance of Apple attending the Appule show. The company claims that it gains more access to consumers via its Apple Stores than it ever did via trade shows.
Mac Expo was last held at Olympia in 2007, the year that Apple pulled out from exhibiting at the show. In 2008, Apple said it would not participate in the Paris Expo. Then Apple announced that 2009 would be its last year at the largest Mac gathering, the San Francisco based Macworld Conference & Expo.
The company issued a press release at the time, claiming: “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.”
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Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld almost two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.