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September 29, 2006

huh

An illegal Apple on…a beer?

Posted Sep. 29, ’06, 12:50 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Apple » Huh?

sakuWhile largely incomprehensible and utterly puzzling, this picture was such an odd find I just had to post it. The picture to the right is of a beer can from the former Soviet Republic Estonia, found by a reader of Cult of Mac. As you can see it displays a nice, big Apple logo right in the middle of the can. This must surely be trademark infringement.

Oh yeah, and for some reason a MacBook shows up on the Saku website with the words “Peaauhinnaks 500 000 kr pluss iga nädal Apple MacBook.” If anyone understand this, please let us know.


19 Comments

GetUp said:

Something like "Win 500 000 kron (domestic money there) plus Apple MacBook every week" :)

September 29, 2006 1:10 PM
Steph Wills said:

The purpose of U.S. trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion. I don't think anyone would purchase this product thinking they were getting a piece of Apple hardware or software. ;) Maybe they were tyring to market the drink to programmers/geeks, possibly with Apple's cooperation. *shrug*

If not, given the general shabby state of intellectual property law, there could definitely be a lawsuit involved. But it most likely would need to be filed in whatever country the makers of Saku are located. Assuming they have trademark law in that country. And that Apple holds a trademark there.

September 29, 2006 1:53 PM
Maccampus said:

well , it could mean " Win a free MacBook from Apple "

Since alot of people from over there come to belgium for work - Please take with you this beer & come to Antwerp :)

September 29, 2006 2:11 PM
pos said:

My best bet is that they're promoting their larger with a competition to win a mac book? Maybe I'm completely wrong

September 29, 2006 2:24 PM
John. said:

It looks like a promotion - win 500,000 Kr and a new MacBook.

September 29, 2006 3:15 PM
Paul said:

Illegal? I have a feeling this will turn out to be something like "Win 500,000 Kr and a new Apple MacBook" promotion.

Unfortunately, I don't speak Estonian so can't confirm.

But 500,000 Estonian Krooni is $40,000 (courtesy of XE.com)

September 29, 2006 5:06 PM
Jaana said:

hei, i am from estonia and actually this beer promotion is pretty cool... in a tv add a wife asks form husband whether she may go to italy for two weeks with her tennis trainer, whether it's ok that she sold his mustang and whether it's ok that in the time she is in italy her mother would come and live with the man... the husband says YES to ewerything cause he is working with his mac...

so the beer company gives one mac book pro a week and 50 000 000 cents is the grand price.

September 30, 2006 12:05 AM
Erik said:

Yes, “Peaauhinnaks 500 000 kr pluss iga nädal Apple MacBook.” means: "Grand Prix 500,000 krons and one Apple Macbook every week." It's not illegal or something, just competition. I'm sure, beacuse I live in Estonia. :) And sorry my English, it's not very good.

September 30, 2006 1:48 AM
Nolan said:

It says – grand prix (main award) is 500 000 EEK and plus every week it is possible to get an Apple MacBook.

September 30, 2006 6:16 AM
Pasi Toivonen said:

This is an advertisment and promotion. Apple Scandinavian has always invented genius tricks to advertise Macs.

September 30, 2006 6:43 AM
EJP said:

Kind of scary that your post is a typical example of "if I can't understand it, it must be illegal!"

This is an Apple-sanctioned competition. IOW, this is an Apple promotion - sponsored by Apple Estonia.

September 30, 2006 12:15 PM
Tiggerizzy said:

I have a feeling that the logo on the can is for the promotion on the website. I bet somewhere else on the can is the trademark information.

September 30, 2006 12:26 PM
Mattias said:

Argh, I cannot stand the usage of the term "former soviet republic" of whatever; we are as former as the US is a former colony of Britain.

September 30, 2006 12:45 PM
DaMacGuy said:

Eric, or anyone else in Estonia, email me please. I'd love to get one of these cans (I'll even let you drink the beer first).

c w a l d r i p a t m a c d o t c o m

September 30, 2006 2:15 PM
fingaz said:

"The purpose of U.S. trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion. I don't think anyone would purchase this product thinking they were getting a piece of Apple hardware or software"

10 more of those cans and it will look like a macbook...

October 1, 2006 3:05 AM
corbetti said:

If someone is willing to send a can (still unopened ;-) in Australia, i'll gladly pay for a six-pack for your own drinking pleasure, plus the shipping :-)

October 2, 2006 1:59 PM
Erkki said:

Saku has been avaialble in the US and Canada at various times. Distribution was nominally via Florida. It's good stuff. Commerce has always flourished in Estonia. During the Soviet regime Tallinn was refered to as the "black pipe" to Finland.

October 2, 2006 6:46 PM
luckyee said:

I do not know how things work in Australia but it is illegal to send food or beverages with mail. I am quite sure it will be confiscated.

October 3, 2006 8:53 AM
papageno said:

First of all:
there is no Apple Estonia. Estonia has a Apple distributor but it is not Apple. You can logically deduct from this that nothing can be sponsored by "Apple Estonia".
Second: Scott, please remove "former soviet republic". This is uneducated, offending and ignorant.

October 5, 2006 10:55 PM

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