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Apple may face massive settlement payout

13 September 2004 21:36 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 1 comment

Last night, Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computers was close to reaching a settlement with the lawyers of George Harrison, widows of John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr over Apple's iTunes music store. In 1968, Apple Corps was formed to publish the Beatles music and sign other musicians. In 1980, Steve Jobs was advertising his new computer invention, the Apple. Harrison found this advertisement in a computer magazine, and it appeared to infringe the bands trademark.

Apple Corps told Apple to change its name to something else if it wished to continue producing music making machines. In 1991 a settlement of $26.5 million was reached but this time around it has been hinted that the figure may be much higher. "People are expecting this to be the biggest settlement anywhere in legal history, outside of a class action suit," said a lawyer. "The numbers could be mindboggling."

When the iTunes music store opened for business in the United States, a new lawsuit started with Mr Justice Mann, the High Court judge. Strangely enough, the judge remarked that he owns an iPod. Apple Corps are claiming that the hardware manufacturer is in breach of an agreement, which would forbid them from using the trademark for any application whose principal content is music, e.g. iTunes.

Source:
Telegraph

Permalink to this article

EMI plays down Beatles download rumor (12 March 2007)

Beatles to finally sell songs online (15 April 2006)

Apple Computers vs. Apple Corp. date set (6 May 2005)

iTunes store to launch in Canada (26 November 2004)

60GB iPod coming soon (9 October 2004)

PassAlong and eBay to enter music download market (23 September 2004)

Japanese labels skeptical of iTunes (8 September 2004)

Sony were offered iTunes deal by Apple (3 September 2004)

Apple launches iTunes affiliate program (1 September 2004)

Apple fans taunt Real (18 August 2004)

Apple settles online music download case (4 August 2004)

Apple accuses Real of cracking (29 July 2004)

Apple signs big independent U.K. labels (21 July 2004)

Apple to launch new iPod next week (18 July 2004)

Apple and indies near striking a deal (13 July 2004)

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clark10 (Junior Member) 15 September 2004 7:32
It's funny to see a "BIG" corp like apple step on someone else toes the way they claim micro$oft steped on thier toes [ + quote]