Beatles, Apple, Inc. Settle Up (again) Over Use of Logo

When Beatlesmania ran rampant across America in the mid-1960s, the novelty of a personal computer was still more than a decade away. After the band from Liverpool, England, had released their final album, "Let it Be" in 1970, thirty-three-RPM LPs still dominated peoples' music libraries. A record was in fact still a record, and the notion that one could carry every hit single, not to mention the entire Beatles' archive on a single device that fits in the palm of the hand, was the stuff of science fiction.

But those crates full of vinyl have indeed been replaced by the iPod.

Only two of the Fab Four are still with us today. Yet Apple Corp, the record company and multimedia corporation founded by the Beatles in 1968, is embroiled in 30-year legal dispute with Apple Computer, Inc. over the image of a little green apple. Apple Corp today is owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) and the estate of George Harrison. Its primary concern is to supervise the licensing of Beatles-related merchandise and the reissuing of Beatles music.

To date, Apple Corp has not granted Apple Computer, Inc. (recently renamed "Apple, Inc.") permission to host Beatles music in its vast iTunes library. And until they do, there will be no downloading via iTunes of "Revolution," "Hey Jude" or "Magical Mystery Tour" for fans of the Fab Four to their iPods.

Ironically, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers, Inc. is reportedly a huge Beatles fan and originally chose the Apple name in tribute to his favorite band.

The first lawsuit came in 1978. John, Paul, George and Ringo sued Jobs and his business partner Steve Wozniak over trademark infringement. The nascent computer company had then used a green Granny Smith apple -- virtually the same logo as the Fab Four's recording company -- and in 1981 paid a cool $80,000 while promising to forever eschew the music business.

But a decade later, with the advancement of personal computers and their many uses, came a second lawsuit. This time, Apple Computer, Inc. paid the former Beatles a whopping $26.5 million to settle the dispute in 1991. Apple Computer, Inc.'s offense was its use of musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) software in the widely popular Macintosh computer, which broke their earlier promise not to enter the music business. The computer company then agreed not to "sell and produce music."

Not surprisingly, legal tensions arose once again when iTunes exploded on the scene a few years ago. In 2003, Apple Corps argued that Apple, Inc.'s use of the logo on iTunes was in breach of the 1991 agreement not to dabble in the music business.

It has now been announced that Apple Corp and Apple, Inc. have resolved this latest legal spat, though the full terms have not yet been made public. Rumors place the amount paid by Steve Jobs to the Fab Four at $50 to $100 million for use of the Apple name and contentious Granny Smith icon.

And for Beatles fans, whether or not they can soon download their favorites hits from the Beatles' catalog on iTunes is another question that remains as yet unanswered.

Source, "Apple, Beatles: We can Work it Out" by the Associated Press.