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Apple v. Apple, plus "Le Freak"
Digital-music giant and The Beatles' record company square off in High Court of Britain over the use of the Apple logo in connection to the iTunes Music Store.
NOT available on iTunes
Round three of the battle between the world's two biggest Apples continued yesterday with some pointed barbs, a dash of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound," and playback of the funky disco anthem "Le Freak" from Chic.
According to a report from The New York Times, lawyers for digital-music giant Apple Computer and Apple Corp, the post-1968 record company for The Beatles, gave their opening arguments in court Wednesday. Apple Corps sued Apple over its use of the multicolored Apple logo with a bite out of it in connection to its iTunes Music Store, saying the use of the logo violated a trademark agreement between the companies.
The case is the third time the parties have squared off over the use of the Apple logo. Both previous cases have involved settlements that stipulated that Apple could not sell music, but neither agreement anticipated the arrival and subsequent explosion of digital music. In this case, Apple Corps is seeking an injunction requiring Apple Computer to remove the bitten-apple logo from iTunes, as well as unspecified monetary damages.
Apple Corps is arguing that iTunes--and its branding alongside the Apple logo--violates the last agreement reached between the parties in 1991. Apple is looking to draw a distinction between it being prohibited from selling physical CDs and its ability to act as a conduit in selling digital music.
"The agreement was intended to say, 'We do music, you do computer software delivery systems,'" Apple Corps lawyer Geoffrey Vos said of the 1991 deal, according to the Times. "The moment you cross the line is when you say you're in the record business."
The Times reported that Vos dismissed the conduit argument, pointing out that iTunes sells some songs exclusively that are not yet available in a physical format.
Vos chose to show Justice Edward Mann how iTunes works by downloading and playing Chic's "Le Freak" for the court. He also showed a television commercial for iTunes that featured Coldplay performing "Speed of Sound," complete with the Apple logo in question alongside a reference to iTunes.
"We know what they're selling with that," Vos said.
But Apple's lawyers rejected that claim, with attorney Anthony Grabiner saying that "even a moron in a hurry could not be mistaken" about the difference between iTunes and a record label like Apple Corps, according to the Associated Press.
"Data transmission is within our field of use," he said. "That's what [the 1991 trademark agreement] says and it is inescapable."
"It's obvious that the content comes from a wide variety of content providers," he said. "It's obvious that Apple Computer is not the source or origin of the [3.5 million songs for sale on iTunes]."
That catalog does not include anything from the Beatles, as the Fab Four and Apple Corp have refused to license their music for any download service.
And not surprisingly in a case that dates back to 1980, when George Harrison spotted an ad for Apple Computer in a magazine and was concerned that fans would think the then-fledgling Apple Computer was connected to the Beatles, there have been efforts made to resolve it permanently.
Vos said Neil Aspinall, managing director of Apple Corps, had rejected an offer from Apple chief Steve Jobs in 2003 proposing to buy the rights to the Apple Records name for $1 million.
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