iLounge

The Apple Computer vs. Apple Corps case is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at London’s High Court before iPod-owning Justice Edward Mann. Apple Corps, owned by the Beatles and their families, claims that the iTunes Music Store breaches a 1991 agreement on the companies’ use of the Apple trademark. “Any damages for this latest clash could amount to tens of millions of pounds because it concerns Apple Computer’s hugely successful iTunes Music Store and iPod,” reports the Times UK newspaper. “The court will be treated to a demonstration of an iPod, but it is unlikely to play a Beatles song.”

Apple Corps sued Apple Computer in the early 80’s for an $80,000 settlement and a promise that the computer company would never get into the music business. In 1989, Apple Corps went after Apple Computer again over a music-making program and microphone. Apple Computer settled in 1991 for $26 million. Apple Corps got rights to the name on “creative works whose principal content is musicâ€? while Apple Computer was allowed “goods and services… used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such content,” according to documents.

“Critically, however, the agreement prevented Apple Computer from distributing content on physical media. This was designed to cover CDs and tapes, but it is unclear whether it included later inventions such as digital music files or devices used to play them,” The Times notes. “Apple Computer will argue that its music service, which has sold more than a billion songs since 2002, is merely data transmission.”