San Francisco's newest movie theater appears to be in legal trouble. Apple, the Cupertino tech company, is suing Apple Cinemas (no relation), the small, Massachusetts-headquartered movie theater chain, which opened a location in San Francisco last month at the former site of the AMC 1000 Van Ness. In a civil lawsuit filed Friday, the tech giant alleges that Apple Cinemas is infringing on its trademark and intentionally misleading consumers.
"Apple Cinemas is knowingly and intentionally using the name Apple to sow confusion for its own benefit," attorneys for the company wrote in the lawsuit.
In July, Apple Cinemas opened its 14-screen multiplex at O'Farrell and Van Ness. The building was previously home to an AMC theater, which operated from 1998 to 2019, and later a short-lived CVG Cinemas location. Now, it's the first West Coast location for Apple Cinemas, which has 13 locations in the Northeast. The theater chain also plans to open a second Bay Area location in Danville by the end of the year, at the former site of Century Blackhawk Plaza.
"I think San Francisco opens up a lot of opportunities," Apple Cinemas Director of Operations Jessica Robitaille told the San Francisco Chroniclebefore the theater opened. "I think it's really a fantastic space that we have to work with and we have big plans for it." (Link Newsand the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
Evidently, this westward expansion ruffled some feathers down the Peninsula. Apple Inc. is headquartered nearly 50 miles south, in Cupertino. In the company's lawsuit, its attorneys argue that Apple Cinemas is imitating Apple Inc.'s name and logo to confuse consumers and profit off its brand.
Apple Cinemas did not return Link News's request for comment in time for publication.
Apple says it issued a cease-and-desist letter to Apple Cinemas in December 2024.The company also says it wrote letters to Apple Cinemas' landlords in San Francisco and Danville, urging them to refrain from renting to the theater chain but received no response.
Apple Inc. is seeking a jury trial, monetary damages and an injunction ordering Apple Cinemas to refrain from using trademarks that contain the name Apple or that are "likely to dilute the distinctiveness" of Apple's branding.
Ironically, the trademark infringement case mirrors a series of legal disputes between Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, the Beatles' multimedia company. In 1978, Apple Corps sued the fledgling tech company for trademark infringement. Apple Inc. ended up paying the multimedia company millions of dollars over the course of three separate settlements.
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