Apple: I wanna hold your trademark

The Beatles founded Apple Corps in London in 1967. In 1976, Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) started in Cupertino and was sued in 1978 by Apple Corps for trademark infringement.

The companies settled in 1981, when the computer company paid an estimated $80,000 to The Beatles’ Apple Corps and agreed not to sell music.

Then in about 1986, Apple added technology for playing and recording music, and Apple Corps in 1989 sued again, claiming violation of the earlier agreement. Apple reportedly paid Apple Corps $26 million in a 1991 settlement.

Then in 2003 after Apple created the iTunes music store for digital song distribution, Apple Corps sued again. A judge in England issued a 2006 ruling in favor of Apple. A 2007 agreement provides that Apple owns trademarks related to Apple, and licenses certain trademarks back to Apple Corps. The litigation ended.

Commenting on the settlement in a statement, Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs in 2007 said, “We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks.”

“They started with very different things,” said Ross Jones, partner and intellectual property attorney at Merrill Arnone & Jones in Santa Rosa.

One company sold music; the other, computers. As years went by and the computer evolved as a product with increasingly musical potential, the possibility of confusion arose.

According to Jones, Apple has sought to protect its use of product names that start with a lower-case “i” as it developed an entire suite of such “iLife” products with the iMac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iPhoto, iTunes. However, BMW in 2014 launched two electric cars, the i3 ($46,000) and sporty i8 ($136,000 and up), as part of its “Project i,” using the “i” to stand for innovation. BlackRock sells exchange-traded funds called iShares and bond funds called iBonds, and markets iThinking investment strategies.

Brazilian company IGB applied for the iPhone trademark in Brazil in 2000, long before Apple received the U.S. trademark in 2008 then challenged IGB’s use in Brazil. Litigation over use of the “iPhone” mark resulted, and a settlement was reported in 2013, where Apple would pay to acquire exclusive use of “iPhone.”