The Western Australian horticulture industry will invest heavily in the trademark protection of the new Bravo apple in an attempt to secure future revenue.

The Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) has spent more than 20 years developing the dark red apple variety, which is only in its second commercial season.

Growers in the state's south west are expected to yield approximately 600 tonnes of Bravo apples this season, which is a tenfold increase on last year.

The Bravo apple is owned by DAFWA and industry cooperative Fruit West has been granted an exclusive licence to grow, pack and market the fruit, which is known as the ANABP01 variety.

Fruit West Cooperative chairman Ben Darbyshire said it was important that Western Australia continued protecting the intellectual property of the brand.

"That's going to be ongoing virtually for the whole life of the apple," he said.

"Right now for example we're trying to get the brand registered for countries overseas, and that goes on and on and on. We have to protect the brand."

Brand ownership for product success

The Bravo apple is expected to reach similar levels of global success as the most famous Australian apple, the Pink Lady, which is currently worth $1.5 billion globally.

The Pink Lady intellectual property is owned by industry body Apple and Pear Australia Limited (APAL).

APAL last year won a legal case over marketing control over the Pink Lady brand in Chile and North America.

Jenny Mercer is the managing director of WA Farm Direct, which is the licensed marketer for the Bravo apple this season.

Ms Mercer said brand protection was vital to the apple's success in overseas markets.

"The good thing about Bravo is that the genetics and trademark are owned by the Department of Agriculture in WA and as I understand they have no plans to take that out of Australia," she said.

"The whole industry has learned a bit from the Pink Lady experience."

Ms Mercer said the Pink Lady was really the first time anyone had embarked on trademarking a fresh produce product.

She said there had been a lot of lessons learned in the past 40 years since the Pink Lady apple was released.

"Those [trademark] processes have been put in right from the start with the Bravo," she said.

"It's a very tightly controlled system for the nursery work, growing work, packing, marketing, it's all under a very strong legal system."