Apple Computer yesterday emerged victorious from its latest legal battle with the Beatles' record company, Apple Corps, when a High Court judge in London ruled that the former's iTunes music store had not breached a trademark agreement between the two groups.
The decision means that Apple Computer will be allowed to continue selling music through its iTunes music store using the Apple logo and name, without risking fines or an injunction.
Shares in Apple Computer rose as much as 2 per cent in early trading in New York, reflecting investor relief at the decision.
They later pulled back, rising 0.7 per cent to $72.36 (€56.95) by midday. More than one billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes for use on Apple's iPod music player since its launch three years ago.
Apple Corps had claimed the 1991 agreement did not permit the US software company to use the Apple mark on or "in connection with" music content - and that this was what iTunes was doing.
Apple Computer maintained the iTunes music store was essentially a delivery service and that the Apple mark was being used to "frank" the software, not the content.
Mr Justice Mann said the trademark agreement - drawn up long before iPods and the iTunes download system existed - had been attempting to cater for a potential situation in which Apple Computer had a service, within its field of use, that was being used to transmit content that was within Corps field of use.
The agreement's intention, said the judge, was "to protect a fair and reasonable use of the mark when applied to the service".
"Provided the mark is used in a reasonable and fair way on or in connection with the service, and genuinely ... to denote a trade connection with that service (rather than with anything else), then the line will not be treated as crossed," he ruled.
Steve Jobs, chief executive of the software group, said his company was "glad to put this disagreement behind us".
But Neil Aspinall, the Beatles' former road manager who has managed Apple Corps for more than 30 years, immediately confirmed that his company would appeal.- (Financial Times service)
