Beatles suing Apple over trademark infringement

On Wednesday, Apple Corps (the Beatles’ record label) will bring Apple Computer to Britain’s High Court in an effort to collect for infringement of the Apple trademark. According to the record label, the introduction of the iTunes Music Store broke a long-time agreement between the organizations. According to TimesOnline, the Beatles used the “Granny Smith” logo in 1968 when they founded Apple Corps. Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computer in 1976, went with a rainbow apple with a bite missing. About 5 years later, Apple Corps sued them and accepted an $80,000 settlement, with the condition that they did not enter the music business. Apple did not stay out of music for long. In 1989, they rolled out a “music-making program.” Two years later, they were sued again… settling for $26 million. The conditions of this final agreement were as follows.

TimesOnline: Apple Corps was awarded rights to the name on “creative works whose principal content is music” while Apple Computer was allowed “goods and services . . . used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such content”. Critically, however, the agreement prevented Apple Computer from distributing content on physical media.

So the question is… do you consider the iTunes Music Store a creative work or a service? According to the information provided by TimesOnline, I’m going to back Apple Computer on this one. iTMS fits the company’s description perfectly. Sorry Sir Paul, you’re going to have to wait a few more years until Apple comes out with their record label.

Read [TimesOnline]