🚀 go-pugleaf

[The following is from the AP newswire service, and is copyrighted
by the Associate Press.  I hope no one sues me.]

APf  02/22 0751  Beatles-Apple Computer

Copyright, 1989. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

   CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -- The company representing the disbanded Beatles has
sued Apple Computer Inc. challenging its use of the "apple" trademark on some of
its products, a newspaper reported.
   In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in London, Apple Corps Ltd. accused the Silicon
Valley computer company of violating a secret 1981 agreement under which the
Beatles' company allowed Apple Computer to use the trademark on computer
products, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
   The agreement retained the right of Apple Corps to use the fruit as a
trademark in its music business, and Apple Computer promised not to enter that
field, according to the Chronicle, which said a draft copy of the lawsuit was
filed in the chancery division of Britain's High Court of Justice.
   Over the past few years, however, the computer company has developed
top-selling new hardware with music synthesizing capabilities, and the Beatles'
company claims those products break Apple Computer's promise.
   The lawsuit asks the court for an injunction to bar Apple Computer from
breaching the agreement and seeks unspecified damages, legal fees and interest.
   The computer company, however, does not believe it is in breach of the
agreement, a company spokeswoman said. But company officials would not comment
in detail on the suit because they had not yet seen it, she said.
   Under the agreement reached in November 1981, Apple Computer, founded in
1977, paid the Beatles an unknown amount for the right to keep using its famous
apple trademark.
   Apple Corps had been founded ten years earlier and its activities included
releases under the Apple label and a chain of clothing stores.
   Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple Computer, said on Tuesday he was not
aware of the agreement.
   "I never heard anything about a fuss over the name," said Wozniak, who is no
longer associated with Apple Computer.
   The other co-founder was Steve Jobs and some company histories trace the name
to his recollections of working in the Oregon apple country where he became
convinced apples are a perfect food.
   The Beatles pop group broke up in 1970, but the London-based company still
represents the busines interests of the three surviving members of the Beatles
and the estate of the late John Lennon.
   Wayne Cooper, a San Francisco lawyer representing the Beatles' company in the
dispute, said negotiations between Apple Corps and the computer company broke
down at a meeting in London Feb. 13.

David Fry                               fry@huma1.harvard.EDU
Department of Mathematics               fry@huma1.bitnet
Harvard University                      ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138