“Beatles fan Steve Jobs could lose a large bite of his Apple to his idols. Beatles’ company, Apple Corps., is involved in a legal battle with Jobs’ Apple Computer, claiming the hardware manufacturer is in breach of a 1991 agreement that that forbids it from using the trademark for any application ‘whose principle content is music.’ The two companies have been involved in a number of court battles over the years involving the use of the Apple trademark,” Gordon Masson reports for Variety.
“Word among the legal community is that an out of court settlement could be imminent and that it will massively dwarf the $26.5 million paid to the Fab Four’s company in 1991 in a row over trademark use,” Masson reports. “One lawyer told Daily Variety, ‘People are expecting this to be the biggest settlement anywhere in legal history, outside of a class action suit. The numbers could be mind boggling.'”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
The Beatles gearing up for a fight over Apple’s iTunes Music Store – June 03, 2003
The Beatles sue Apple Computer over iPod, iTunes – September 12, 2003
Sosumi: more on the Beatles’ lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc. – September 12, 2003
Forbes: Apple vs. Apple; iTunes Music Store just might end up with exclusive Beatles deal – September 12, 2003
Apple and Apple issue statements regarding ‘Apple’ trademark lawsuit – September 12, 2003
Analyst: Apple vs. Apple trademark infringment suit just ‘a blip on the radar’ – September 13, 2003
Steve Jobs comments on Apple vs. Apple trademark dispute – September 17, 2003
Beatles’ Apple vs. Jobs’ Apple; 1991 agreement allows Mac maker ‘data transmission services, even music data’ – February 26, 2004
Fox News: Paul McCartney could end up owning Apple’s iTunes Music Store – August 14, 2004
I hate the beatles, they are just money grubbing old men who don’t even remember how to make decent music anymore. Doesn’t everybody already that would download Beatles music already have it anyway?
Keefe..
Too young, I guess, to realize what the Beatles accomplished…
But this fight over Apple Computers / Apple Corps Records wont go away, till a judge somewhere figures out that one has nothig to do with the other !!
But, my suspicion is…. the drive factor behind this latest bout isnt the 2 remaining Beatles…
My gut tells me its Mrs Lennon…
But I may be way off base here… I dunno
John and George were the only ones worth a Damn. Paul is the deplorable asshole. I doubt this shit would be happening if John was still around. This lawsuit is such bull and the judge and the jury should know that.
Apple Corps suing Apple Computer is just another easy way to generate revenue. I have never confused Apple in regards to being a record company.
“My gut tells me its Mrs Lennon…
But I may be way off base here… I dunno”
You probably are.
I don’t care what the beatles accomplished. Hardly anyones heard of Apple corp. I a Brit, hope the remaining Beatles lose this as they really don’t deserve it. They havnt done bollocks all since the ones with talent have passed on. There are other companies out that have had the apple name waaaay before the beatles Apple corp. Theyre just a greedy lot and should die out as soon as possible. Thats rock n roll man!
Apple Corps should be ashamed. What are they trying to do? They’re just freaking greedy. I hope they choke on their settlement.
Yeh, Paul McCartney needs to have his ass kicked, I thought the Beatles were all about free spirit and love?
There is no “Mrs. Lennon”.
It is “Yoko Ono, wife of the deceased John Lennon”.
Koo-koo-kachoo!
Apple’s future looks to be strongly leaning to music and entertainment and fighting Microsoft to be the glue that holds future home entertainment systems together.
With the amount of cash Apple has in reserve, if thye can get rid of the fscking Beatles *for good* it would be well worth a large settlement.
The main problem with Apple having signed settlement contracts with Apple Corps in the past is that Apple’s options for fighting future suits is quite limited–much of the fact finding a court would have to do is likely already admitted in the agreements, and instead of a standard copyright/trademark infringement suit the battle would be primarily contractual.
A settlement rescinding all prior and future restrictions on Apple’s product design and marketing and permitting Apple to use the Apple name unrestricted would be worth almost anything Apple paid for it.
Next revision iMac G5 with hardware synthesizer, anyone? L:)
dennis….
I guess we’ll find out when the stuff hits the fan, huh ?
and Walrus…
Amazing ! youre on key…and this early in the morning, too !
Well if they have to pay through the nose for this settlement, they better darn well get an exclusive on Beatle music at the iTunes store.
Other than that, well I am not impressed with Apple corps and never impressed with the Beatles, although Lennon and Harrison were decent.
Well I know tons about the Beatles but they’ve already made their millions.. the Apple Corps era was a sickening slide to utter shite music. The Beatles’ ‘Entrepreneurial’ side was so bloody awful, well, it ruined them, until the band broke up.
Lennon’s solo career was dreadful, as was anything McCartney touched…
Harrison was the only one doing great things.
Pretty sure there was another guy, but… does anyone remember Thomas the Tank Engine..
Apple’s stock will go into a nose dive and 7500 employees will be laid off.
Sony will buy Apple and resell the Beatles catalog back to Apple Corps to obliterate the judgement and we’ll be downloading the Beatles catalog from the Sony iTunes Music Store.
Steve will leave to run Disney and OSX will run on VAIOs and it’s all that bitch Yoko Ono’s fault.
Why don’t we protest against this action of Apple Corps? I mean, people don’t know what Apple Corps is anymore. Does it stand for anything these days? Apple Corps only holds a catalogue for crying out loud. Why are they making such a fuss about it? These dudes are really being fussy, just to make some money. It’s not as if Apple is infringing on an established brand name. Okay, so Apple made an arrangement in 1991. This makes everything harder. But Apple Corps should embrace Apple for what they have done for the music. On another note, does Apple�s offering of GarageBand and Logic also mean an infringement?
Come on people, when Real does something we don’t like, we protest. But now some old guys want a piece of our Apple because they are sour and persons of so-called principle, we do nothing.
da,da,da,da,da..
ALL YOU NEED IS CASH
da,da,da,da,da
EVERYBODY NOW
da,da,da,da,da
ALL YOU NEED IS CASH…
John is dead, George is dead, Ringo is out there somewhere and Paul has not been relevant to the popular music scene for a long time now.
The 1960’s are over and Peace, Love and all that lost out a long time ago. The Gordon Gekko-like attitude of Apple Corps is the order of the day. It’s all about the money now.
Blood from a Turnip…
Show me the money…
Greed is Good…
Most of the kids buying music online and using iPods couldn’t name ONE Beatle, much less name Apple Corps as their corporate rights holder.
“Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I’m the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luck
And I’m down on my luck
Now I’m hiding in Honduras
I’m a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan”
WARREN ZEVON – “Lawyers, Guns And Money” lyrics
Not that it would seem to matter to most posters here, but a large settlement could include exlusive electronic distribution of the beatles’ works.
If a settlement is in place, how much will Apple loose, you think? $50 million, a $100 million?
If paying Apple Corps another $25 million dollars gets these blood sucking leeches of Apple’s back permanently and gets the Beatles online at iTMS exclusively until after Christmas 2005, it’s money well spent.
Anymore than that and they should go fuck themselves.
“me”, that was my thought too.
Apple Computer and Apple Corps are probably making up some big extravagant number, say $200 million, and claiming that Apple is “settling” this lawsuit, when in fact they are really setting a huge price precedent for Microsoft and Real and the other crummy online music stores to have to beat in order to distribute Beatles music.
Steve Jobs has done this before–this sort of blurring of the distinctions between settling a lawsuit and investment–with Microsoft, when they claimed that Microsoft was “investing” $150 million in Apple, but in fact Microsoft was buying a license to the Apple patent portfolio.
That first suit was excessive…If Apple sends another dime into the Beatles’ coffers, they are just not fighting it
and care more for washed up “pop music”
than thier own customers, shareholders and employees.
Apple’s are everywhere, and no one company can claim sole posession of it’s eternal rights in any business area.
Now if the Beatle’s company was called something different/unique such that it would have no ties to anything on this earth…and Steve Jobs named his company the same name, then the Beatles might have a case.
Again, Apples are a common everyday item around the world. Don’t lay down on this one Apple Computer…you have your own unique identity.
CT
Doesn’t Michael Jackson own the early, ‘pre-drug’ Beatles catalogue? I was under the impression that the only recordings under the Apple Corps purview were the “White Album”, Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be…
Speaking of which, I’m surprised that Paul and Yoko haven’t tried to sue the Replacements for naming an album with the words “Let”, “It” and “Be” in the same order that the Beatles used years before. People might confuse the ‘Mats and the Beatles, you know!!! Oh, the horror, the horror!!
Paul McCartney was always the greedy one. Fuck the Beatles…
Apple should just shut down the iTunes Music Store and discontinue manufacture of the iPod and blame it all on the Beatles. Kids would be burning Beatle CDs in the street – ohhhh the irony.