How about them apples? NCAE threatens to sue Michele Morrow over fruit campaign logo.

The North Carolina Association of Educators is threatening to sue Michele Morrow unless she removes an apple logo from materials promoting her campaign to be state superintendent of public instruction.

NCAE had sent Morrow’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter in July in which the teachers group alleged it has exclusive legal rights to use a registered service mark of an apple outline in North Carolina for political advocacy.

On Thursday, NCAE sent a follow-up letter to Morrow, the GOP candidate, saying “immediate legal action” will result if the campaign continues to use the apple symbol.

“Michelle Morrow does not support public education and has never worked in or even sent her children to a North Carolina public school,” NCAE president Tamika Walker Kelly said in a news release Thursday. “Voters can see she’s trying to hide behind the apple symbol, but her disrespect of public school teachers and staff, support for political violence, and her plan to put cameras in school bathrooms, just to name a few, makes her unqualified for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.”

Morrow’s campaign has accused NCAE of showing “political animus” in asking it to stop using the apple. The campaign says apples are a generic symbol not exclusively associated with NCAE.

“Why would NCAE use bogus legal tactics to thwart NC’s Student-First Candidate?” Morrow posted on X on Aug. 8. “Because Michele Morrow is fighting for you! That’s why.”

Morrow a public school critic

Morrow is a homeschool parent, conservative activist, registered nurse and former Christian missionary who upset incumbent Catherine Truitt in the March Republican primary for state superintendent.

She is running against Democrat Mo Green, the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, and former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a group that funds progressive causes. NCAE has endorsed Green.

Morrow made national headlines after CNN reported on her past social media posts that talked about killing former President Barack Obama and encouraged President Donald Trump to use the military to stay in power in 2021. She’s also called public schools “socialist indoctrination centers.”

Morrow uses red apple-shaped campaign signs, as well as showing a red apple on her campaign material and website.

NCAE asks Morrow to remove apple logo

But NCAE says the Montgomery County Education Association in Maryland has been registered to use the apple in connection with political advocacy since 2009 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In 2014, NCAE reached a licensing agreement with the Maryland State Education Association to use the apple symbol for political advocacy in North Carolina. All three groups are affiliates of the National Education Association.

NCAE has used the apple symbol in political campaigns, including on candidate endorsements.

In the July 12 letter, NCAE says Morrow is not permitted to use the apple symbol because it hasn’t endorsed her. The group says Morrow’s use of the apple “is deceptively similar” to the group’s apple.

“Morrow’s claim that the apple image is just a generic symbol of education is misleading,” Walker Kelly said. “To her, it might just be a cutout of an apple, but the trademarked property helps ensure the public knows what is genuine and authentic.

“In this case, the Apple Ballot is trademarked and licensed property used by hardworking public education professionals to voice their support for candidates that support public education — something she clearly does not understand.”

Morrow wants no connection to NCAE

Morrow’s campaign told NCAE that its arguments are without legal merit. The campaign pointed to the widespread use of the apple in logos in the United States.

“Apples are iconic symbols in the United States for education and education related goods and services,” Anthony Biller, an attorney representing Morrow’s campaign, wrote in a July 31 letter to NCAE. “The pervasive use of apples in conjunction with such goods and services is so widespread that, if not generic, the icon is so diluted to have effectively no source indicating strength..”

Biller added that Morrow is “concerned” by the assertion that her campaign could even possibly be associated with NCAE. Morrow has been a frequent critic of the NCAE.

“Mrs. Morrow is willing to ‘go the extra mile’ to distance herself from NCAE and its long established and routine endorsements of left wing, Democratic party politicians, such as Josh Stein and Mo Green, as well as your history of endorsing and promoting public policies Mrs. Morrow finds disastrous, such as your past advocacy to close public schools throughout most of 2020 and your aggressive demands for mask mandates for students,” Biller wrote.

“As such,the Morrow campaign will make efforts to let the public know that she is not associated with nor endorsed by your organization.”