ITunes Logo Case Pits Apple Against Apple

The case of Apple versus Apple is a fight over forbidden fruit.

A London court is hearing arguments this week over whether Apple Computer Inc. broke a long-standing deal with Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles’ record label, when it launched its popular iTunes Music Store.

The core question: Does the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker’s use of its Apple logo on the online store make people think it’s backed by the Fab Four?

Both Apples have similarly pomaceous logos: The record label’s is a Granny Smith; the computer maker doesn’t say. But few outside the courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice think there’s much risk of confusion. In their day, the Beatles may have been more popular than Jesus, but these days, the iPod is bigger than John, Paul, George and Ringo.

“I think that very few people are likely to be confused because the Apple Computer mark is so associated with the digital age,” said patent and trademark lawyer Paul Fleischut. “I think that people are probably more likely to associate [the apple logo] with that company than with the Beatles’ publishing company.”

Apple and Apple have been unable to come together over the logo. Rather than just let it be, the computer maker and the label have followed the long and winding road of litigation since the late 1970s. A 1981 agreement allowed Apple Corps to use the logo for music and performances and Apple Computer for computers and software.

The deal even dictated how the apple could appear: whole and green, or cut in half for the band; rainbow or multicolored for the computer maker.

Another legal dispute arose a decade later, when Apple introduced computers with digital music interfaces and software for composing and playing music. Apple Corps balked and Apple Computer ended up paying $26.5 million under a 1991 settlement, which also revised how it could use the trademark.

“They were the people who were supplying computer systems, computer software, computer hardware. That’s what they did,” Apple Corps lawyer Geoffrey Vos said in court Wednesday. “We were the people supplying the music. And they crossed the dividing line.”

For its part, Apple Computer is expected to argue today that the 1991 agreement entitles it to use the logo for goods or services used to make or reproduce digital music.

Love, apparently, isn’t all you need. Apple Corps also wants money.