Written By Reprise Media | March 31, 2006 | Share This |

apple v apple.jpg

It’s not a comparison of apples and oranges, but it’s real close. Apple Corps, the company that manages the Beatles’ holdings, wants Apple Computer, Inc. to stop using its logo on the iTunes music store and pay unspecified damages for the supposed violation of a 1991 agreement under which the companies agreed to stay out of each others’ business. According to the AP, Apple Computer says that as part of the settlement, Apple Computer paid $26.5 million and was granted the right to distribute “digital entertainment content.”

The dispute seems rooted in Apple Corps’ belief in the possibility of trademark confusion, but the number of people who might be misled into thinking that the two companies are one and the same is probably in the neighborhood of zero. Or as Apple Computer’s lawyer Anthony Grabiner put it, “Even a moron in a hurry could not be mistaken about that.” Their respective logos are easily told apart, despite the fact that both are depictions of an apple; it would be hard to mix up Apple Computer’s once-bitten fruit drawing with Apple Corps pristine granny smith.

“In Russia, MP3s download YOU. What a country!” iTunes is facing threats on many fronts these days, whether from the lower house of France’s parliament or what remains of the Fab Four. Now they can expect some competition from the more-than-slightly-shady Russian music download site Allofmp3.com. They’ve launched allTunes, software that bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s popular application. As Google Blogoscoped puts it, “like iTunes, but it delivers your music cheaper and without C.R.A.P. (Content Restriction, Annulment and Protection, aka DRM).” Yeah, but chances are it’s not legal in whatever country you happen to be in, and did we mention the more-than-slight shadiness?

Topics: Legal Issues |