Beatles sue Apple Computer over logo in London High Court

Mar 29, 2006, 18:03 GMT

Eddie Cue, Head of Internet Service for Apple Corps leaves the High Court in London , Wednesday 29 March 2006. He is part of Apple Corps Limited in their legal battle between Apple Music, owned by the Beatles who are suing Apple Computer Corps over allegations that Apple Computer Corps breached an agreement they had in 1991. EPA/LINDSEY PARNABY

London - The long-running legal feud between the Beatles and Apple Computer Inc over the use of the Apple name and logo entered a new phase in the High Court in London Wednesday.

Apple Corps Ltd, the London-based record label created to protect the musical heritage and business interests of the Beatles, launched a legal suit against Apple Computer over the use of the Apple name and logo to promote music products.

Apple Corps Ltd claims that the US computer firm is in breach of a 1991 agreement which forbade Apple Computer Inc to enter the music business.

Apple Computer opened the first iTunes Music Store in 2003 and is currently the market leader for music downloads.

Apple Corps is seeking the reinstatement of the 1991 deal and financial damages.

The case was admitted for a hearing in London after an application by Apple Computer to have it heard in California in 2004 was turned down.

Geoffrey Vos, representing Apple Corps, told the court Wednesday that Apple Computer had violated the agreement by selling music online, and its argument that it uses the apple mark only in connection with a delivery system was 'plainly wrong.'

Apple Computer had given the public access to 3.7 million tracks available worldwide and there had been one billion downloads through the Music Store, the lawyer said.

Legal commentators in London said the case was interesting 'because the iPod defines a generation just as the Beatles defined a generation.'

The case is expected to last several months.

Apple Corps Ltd, owned by former Beatles stars Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, was founded in 1968.

Apple Computer, the firm whose home computers helped launch the personal computer industry, was founded in 1976.

The computer company's logo is an apple with a neat bite out of the side; the record company is represented by a complete green Granny Smith apple.

An agreement between the two companies to share use of the apple trademark was first made in November 1981.

However, as Apple Computer's business increasingly entered the world of entertainment, the company sought a less restrictive trademark agreement, and a court battle ensued in 1989.

Details of the eventual deal, thrashed out in London's High Court over two years, were never disclosed - but Apple Corps was believed to have emerged with about 30 million dollars from the computer firm.