They’ll be spitting white rage in Cupertino tonight. Why? Because Google has been declared the most valuable brand in the world. Which means Apple is no longer. Research company Millward Brown has decided that this is true. And when a research company decides, you can’t really argue. Indeed, looking at the research results, the evidence is quite painful. Apple’s brand value has diminished by 20 percent to a mere $148 billion. Meanwhile, Google’s has soared by a fulsome 40 percent to $159 billion. How much closer Apple would have been if it had persuaded a jury to force Samsung to donate $2.2 billion to Apple’s coffers for alleged copying of its patents. Millward Brown’s Global BrandZ (there’s nothing like research that has its own brand called BrandSomething) director Peter Walshe explained Google’s soaring presence to the Telegraph.