>>I don't see how Apple can own the word apple, if Microsoft doesn't own the plural of a window.
They own the relevant trademark classes meaning they can take action if (for example) their trademark is used in a product name. "Apple Peel" really is a clever label but it may not survive, though the product surely will- especially if Apple makes a big fuss and helps advertise it.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
