CRUNCH TIME FOR APPLE

The IPKat is grateful to both Simon Haslam and Frank Jennings for pointing out that Apple Corp (the Beatles’ music company) has lost its court case against Apple Computer. The case concerned a settlement agreement whereby Apple Computer agreed not to use apples for music. Apple Corp argued that the use of apple imagery on iPod and iTunes breached the agreement. However, the BBC reports that Mann J disagreed, finding that the apple logo was used for Apple’s stores, not its music.

The report is a bit sketchy, but the IPKat is trying to square this finding with two facts: (i) in R v Johnstone, the person using the trade mark for the music was the record company, not the artist (though maybe what’s going on here is that Apple Computer is a third entity, separate from both the record company and the artist, sort of like a record store) and (ii) we allow trade mark registrations for retail services separate from the goods that those retailers are selling.