Apple Corps v. Apple Computer
The Beatles
founded a holding company for their record label Apple Records, which they
names Apple Corps. In 1978 this company filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer
for trademark infringement. This case lasted 3 years before finally being
settled in the favour of Apple Corps to the sum of US $80,000. The conditions
of the settlement stipulated that Apple
Computer would not enter the music business, and Apple Corps would not, in
turn, enter the computer business.
However in
1986, Apple Computer added audio-recording capabilities to its computers, so ,
in 1989, this led Apple Corps to sue again, claiming that Apple Computer had
violated their agreed settlement. A second settlement was reached, again in
favour of Apple Corps.
Along with
the monetary value, the settlement outlined each company’s respective rights to
the term “Apple”. In short this stated that Apple Computer agreed that it would
not package, sell or distribute physical music materials.
Once again
in 2003, Apple Corps sued Apple Computer. This time for breach of contract for
their use of the Apple logo for its iTunes Music Store, contending it a
violation of the previous agreement. The trial opened in the High Court in 2006.
Apple Corps
opening argument was that they had rejected a US $1 million offer from Apple
Computer to use the Apple name on the iTunes store. However the court ruled in
favour of Apple Computer, stating that “no breach of the trademark agreement
[had] been demonstrated”
In 2007,
Apple Inc. and Apple Corps announced a settlement of their trademark dispute.
Apple Inc. would own all the trademarks related to “Apple” and will license
certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use. This
brought the ongoing trademark lawsuit to an end.
Commenting on the settlement, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO said, “We love the
Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks.
It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove
the potential of further disagreements in the future.”
Despite
this, it would take a further 3 years until the official Beatles albums would
be made available for sale on Apple’s iTunes Store.
Hormby, Thomas (01/10/2007). "What's In a
Name? Apple Corp vs. Apple Computer". Low End Mac. http://lowendmac.com/orchard/07/0110.html
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