Apple Corps (the Beatles’ record label and tax shelter) is suing Apple Computer for a third time over the Apple trademark. In the 80’s when Apple Computer was a startup, Apple Corps sued Apple Computer over use of the Apple trademark. A settlement was reached where Apple Corps agreed to “share” the Apple trademark as long as Apple Computer never sold music. Now, with iTunes being a huge money maker for Apple Computer, Apple Corps is suing again. Apple Computer contends that the agreement reached in the 80’s does allow Apple Computer to sell online data transfers, which is all iTunes does.
Legal rangling aside, I don’t know what Apple Corps’ problem is. Apple Corps is not a huge record label that makes it’s money from selling, producing, and packaging music from a wide spectrum of artists. As far as I know, Apple Corps only releases Beatles CDs and DVDs and facilitates the distribution of profits to the Beatles and their heirs. So, with Apple Corps’ only product being Beatles media, and since the iTunes music store does not sell any Beatles media (nor does any other online music store) what are the damages to Apple Corps?
Come on guys, let it go.