These two Italian brothers probably feel like geniuses right about now. Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato have finally proven victorious after a multi-year legal battle regarding the rights to call their clothing brand "Steve Jobs."
While at first this might seem like an absolutely ridiculous idea, what better way to get your start-up clothing company into people's minds than to name yourself after one of the gods of modern day technology? The brothers originally chose the name back in 2012, one year after Jobs' untimely death, when they found out that Apple had not trademarked his name, a definite head-scratcher from a business perspective. In an interview with La Repubblica Napoli, the brothers said, "We did our market research and we noticed that Apple, one of the best known companies in the world, never thought about registering its founder's brand, so we decided to do it."
To take it one step further, the Barbato brothers even created a logo that resembled Apple's iconic apple logo, a letter "J" made to look like a half-eaten apple. Truthfully, it all just looks like a sad bootleg brand you would see strolling down Canal Street, but hey, you cannot knock these guys for trying to get some easy publicity. Of course, Apple sued the brand.
Back in 2014, the European Union's Intellectual Property Office rejected Apple's trademark opposition, which officially gave the brothers the right to continue using the "Steve Jobs" brand name and crudely designed, Apple-esque logo despite their claim not being settled until this year.
"Steve Jobs" currently produces products like T-shirts, accessories, and denim, but in a revelation that is not the least bit surprising, the brothers told Business Insider Italia they eventually plan to use the brand to create electronics.
