The Siri Shortcuts logo is pictured left with the Shift logo pictured right
One of the most genuinely interesting features Apple unveiled at WWDC 2018 for iOS 12 was its Workflow-like default app, Siri Shortcuts. But according to one startup, an essential part of Shortcuts is apparently not so original after all.
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Shift, a small startup that uses the blockchain to create websites, is asking Apple to cough up over $200,000 in compensation or change the logo. In the cease and desist letter, the company tells Apple to “stop infringing on our intellectual property” and that Apple’s new Siri Shortcuts is causing “confusion in the marketplace,” explaining that “the Shift trademark has become an asset of substantial value” and a symbol of “goodwill”.
“It’s mind-blowing Apple, the firm with the biggest cash pile in history, the firm that is so design-oriented, had to copy our logo,” a Shift spokesperson told The Sun.
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Hmm. Yes, that would be pretty scandalous…if it were true. You don’t even need to put the two logos side-by-side to see that they look barely alike. In fact, Swift’s logo looks more like a clone of Dropbox’s logo than Siri Shortcuts. Not to mention that I (and probably countless others) have never heard of Shift, until now.
It’s not the first time a small company has tried to sue Apple. Back in October, a Tokyo-based company filed a lawsuit after it began using the word Animoji, despite an Animoji app already existing on the platform. On the flip side, Apple recently tried to sue a tiny iPhone repair shop in Norway for importing unauthorised iPhone replacement screens, and seemingly lost.
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It’s highly unlikely Apple will lose this case against Shift and that it will be forced to pay the $200,000 in compensation. If anything, the lawsuit should give Shift some extra publicity, and that’s about it.
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