By Abhirup Roy and Ben Klayman SAN FRANCISCO Tesla on Wednesday joined General Motors and Ford in being

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 19, 2023--

Apple is seeking the exclusive image rights of apples in Switzerland, according to a Swiss fruit growers association. Fruit Union Suisse, an 111-year-old organisation that promotes the interests of fruit farmers in the country, may be forced to change its logo if the US tech giant succeeds in its legal bid. The association’s logo features a red apple with a white cross on it, having been slightly revised in 2011 in order to celebrate the organisation’s centenary. “We have a hard time understanding this, because it’s not like they’re trying to protect their bitten apple.” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariethoz told Wired. “Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal... that should be free for everyone to use.” It is one of several attempts by Apple to gain intellectual property rights over the eponymous fruit, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Countries that have acquiesced to Apple’s demands include Armenia, Israel, Japan and Turkey. Separate records from the Tech Transparency Project show that Apple filed more trademark applications than Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft combined between 2019 and 2021. Apple first applied to the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property for the trademark of a depiction of a Granny Smith apple in 2017, covering electronic, digital and audiovisual consumer goods. The request was only partially granted, leading Apple to submit an appeal earlier this year. “We’re concerned that any visual representation of an apple – so anything that’s audiovisual or linked to new technologies or to media – could be potentially impacted,” said Mariethoz. “Theoretically, we could be entering slippery territory every time we advertise with an apple.” The Independent has reached out to Apple for a response, though the company typically does not comment on ongoing legal matters. Read More Can Apple make us love virtual reality? | You Ask The Questions

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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes Chelsea’s struggles this season are a warning sign of how difficult life can be after a takeover. As the Glazers continue to consider a full or partial sale of United, a process which has been rumbling on since November, Chelsea will visit Old Trafford on Thursday limping to the end of a hugely disappointing first campaign since a group headed by Todd Boehly bought the club last summer. There has been no lack of funding as the London club have spent almost £600million in the last two transfer windows, but the investment is yet to pay off with one of the Premier League’s so-called ‘Big Six’ stuck down in 12th place, a top-half finish now beyond them. Frank Lampard, Chelsea’s third manager this term following the early-season dismissal of Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter’s ill-fated seven-month spell at the helm, has taken only four points from nine games in interim charge. Chelsea have been criticised for a scattergun approach in the market, at one point signing so many players they could not all fit in the changing room of their Cobham training ground, and Ten Hag said their experience showed money is not the answer if not spent wisely. “In this moment a centralisation of good players, of the best managers, also the money is all here in the UK, that makes a great competition but also a tough and a hard competition,” he said. “You have to do the right things, you can have money but you have to do it and spend it in a smart way and you need to have a strategy behind it, otherwise the money doesn’t work.” United have hardly been stingy themselves in recent transfer windows. Ed Woodward, who spent nine years as executive vice-chairman before stepping down early last year, tore through £1billion in signings, but United only twice finished runners-up in the Premier League during that time. Woodward is long gone, replaced by Richard Arnold in January 2022. Although United are yet to shift all of the surplus players that date from Woodward’s time, Ten Hag believes the club is now operating much more smartly – something that would need to continue if new ownership arrives. “I think we are in a good direction but also we can also learn from this season,” he said. “We have to evaluate that after the season, make the right conclusions for the future and that is what we will definitely do that after the season.” United will be sure of a Champions League place with a match to spare if they take at least a point against Chelsea. With the League Cup already in the trophy cabinet and the FA Cup final against Manchester City still to come, Ten Hag can point to progress in his first season but these are only markers on the road to where United want to be. You can have money but you have to do it and spend it in a smart way and you need to have a strategy behind it, otherwise the money doesn’t work Erik ten Hag Since United were last top of the tree fresh challenges to the old order have emerged. Newcastle will be in the Champions League next season for the first time in 20 years, while Brighton have qualified for Europe for the first time in their history. The notion of a ‘Big Six’ in the Premier League feels increasingly outdated. “I think there are many more teams in the Premier League who are really strong,” Ten Hag added. “Talking about Aston Villa, Brighton, Brentford, I think there are many more teams who are really strong and tough and it is not only those top six clubs.” Asked if the top-four battle would be even harder next term, he said: “It could be, but there is a summer in between so in the summer a lot of things can happen. In this moment, we know the balance in the league but over the summer things can change.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Frank Lampard not surprised contract talks with Mason Mount are taking time Craig Overton stars as Somerset begin Blast by thrashing Hampshire Cameron Norrie starts Lyon Open title defence with win over David Goffin

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When Manchester City won the Premier League, Erik ten Hag was not one of the first on the phone to Pep Guardiola. Perhaps that is unsurprising: he is, after all, manager of their rivals. But he is also an old ally, a man who worked with Guardiola at Bayern Munich, one who, just before he took the job at Manchester United, the Catalan had said could succeed him at the Etihad Stadium. They are part of a mutual admiration society. “The way in winning the title is a demonstration of football, everyone likes the way they play: so attractive, so brilliant,” Ten Hag said. “But their season is still not finished as our season is still not finished.” If Guardiola is denied a historic treble, it may be by a man he took under his wing. The man who liked Guardiola’s football so much that he took a backward step to team up with him, leaving a manager’s job at Go Ahead Eagles, who he had led to promotion, to take charge of Bayern’s second team in the German fourth division in 2013, has progressed rapidly. If Ten Hag was playing the long game, looking to further his education, now they meet as peers; at the Etihad Stadium and then Old Trafford this season, at Wembley in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Guardiola has the more storied CV, but Ten Hag is in charge of the bigger club. If, for much of this season, Guardiola could look up the league table and see one of his proteges, Mikel Arteta, above him, now he may be denied the FA Cup by another from his footballing family tree. And yet the sense is that Ten Hag is looking to topple Guardiola, not emulate him. They can come from the same school of thought, but they have attended different classes. Ten Hag is the former Ajax manager and yet Guardiola is more of the Ajax purist. Guardiola is the Johan Cruyff disciple, the man whose thinking was shaped by the man indelibly associated with Dutch football. He was the slow, inelegant reserve-team player parachuted into Barcelona’s Dream Team, who then became a European Cup winner as a player; in 2008, Cruyff advocated giving the untried Guardiola the manager’s job. A spectacular success only enhanced his own legacy. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here,” Guardiola reflected in 2016. Guardiola was exposed to Cruyff’s thinking at a formative age. There is a clip of a 13-year-old Ten Hag asking Cruyff a question on Dutch television, but he is not from Amsterdam or an Ajax product. He grew up near the German border, had three spells as a player and one as a coach at Twente in Enschede. He was 43 when he linked up with Guardiola, 47 when he got the Ajax job. He was, according to his assistant Steve McClaren, known as “mini Pep” at Bayern, when they coached on adjacent training pitches. Yet Ten Hag’s United are not a mirror of Guardiola’s City. There are similarities, but marked differences, too. Arteta’s Arsenal have more common denominators with City. United have topped the Premier League’s passing charts under a former Ajax manager, but he was Louis van Gaal and it was in 2014-15. In 2022-23, as City predictably had the most possession, United trailed in sixth, with 53.7 per cent to the champions’ 65.2. Their pass completion rate was only the seventh best, behind even Tottenham. Meanwhile, as City, partly by having the greatest share of the ball, won the fewest tackles, United won the eighth most. They were eighth for blocks, too. City were 20th. United were less slaves to possession, more reliant on winning duels. They played more long passes and scored the most goals from counter-attacks. United have not been slaves to possession. A difference can be seen in their respective wingers: Guardiola will often pick the pair who give him most control whereas Ten Hag tends to prefer a dribbler, in Antony, and a scorer and sprinter, in Marcus Rashford. United are willing to risk losing the ball more to try and make something happen. The passing statistics of Bruno Fernandes (77.7 per cent completion rate) and Casemiro (78.5) are examples; only Erling Haaland of the City regulars finds a teammate on a lower share of occasions. If United’s style of play in part shows Ten Hag’s pragmatic streak, he has shown a willingness to keep David de Gea, no Ederson with the ball at his feet; Guardiola would surely have ditched a goalkeeper who cannot double up as the 11th outfield player. But they share a fondness for left-footed centre-backs that is a recurring theme among those with Ajax influences. Perhaps Ten Hag’s flagship signing was Lisandro Martinez; he has shown a reluctance to use the right-footed Harry Maguire in his old role as a left-sided centre-back. In converting left-back Luke Shaw to use him in the middle, he has echoed one of Guardiola’s early surprises, when Aleksandar Kolarov assumed similar duties. So far, though, he has eschewed inverted full-backs or hybrid roles like John Stones’, two of Guardiola’s idiosyncratic ploys; in Martinez, Shaw and Varane, however, he simply has defenders who can double up as progressive passers. Ten Hag’s United debut came with a tactic that seemed to come straight from the Guardiola handbook, with Christian Eriksen selected as a false nine. It did not work, though he had greater success at Ajax when selecting Dusan Tadic instead of a striker. His use of Fernandes in a variety of positions has shown a total football ethos; as Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan can testify, Guardiola’s midfielders can find themselves given a number of different slots in the side, too. Ten Hag has differed from Guardiola in derbies; a strategy of man-marking in midfield backfired when they went 6-1 down at the Etihad, eventually losing 6-3; with Fred excelling against De Bruyne and Fernandes playing off the right, it worked better in victory at Old Trafford. Perhaps, with his fondness for quick attacks, Ten Hag is trying to tap into United’s traditions, to borrow from Sir Alex Ferguson as much as from Guardiola; his relentless emphasis on a winning mentality echoes the Scot’s attitude. Certainly, his style of football is designed to bring the best from some of those he inherited, such as Rashford and Fernandes, rather than being dogmatically ideological. But were Cruyff still around, the chances are he would have seen his stamp on one of the sides at Wembley: that managed by his pupil, Guardiola, rather than that under a successor at Ajax and a compatriot, Ten Hag. Read More How Yaya Toure changed everything for Man City — and delivered Man Utd a ‘slap in the face’ The year that sportswashing won: A season that changed football forever 5 key talking points as rivals Man City and Man Utd clash in FA Cup final How managers Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag fare ahead of FA Cup final Pep Guardiola takes top honours at LMA Awards Injury concerns for Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish ahead of FA Cup final

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