Apple has suffered a setback in a US brand name dispute nearly eight years after launching its music streaming service. An appeals court in Washington yesterday sided with a musician who is taking action against the registration of the Apple Music name. The trumpeter Charles Bertini claims that he has been using the Apple Jazz brand for live performances since 1985 and sees a risk of confusion.
Apple’s journey to using its own company name on everything music-related has been difficult before – and it has to do with the Beatles. The members of the legendary band set up the London company Apple Corps in 1968 to do business around their music.
Ten years later, Apple Corps sued Apple Computer, a company newly founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, alleging trademark infringement. The dispute was settled in the 1980s with a deal: Apple Computer stays out of the music business, Apple Corps out of the computer industry.
Jobs bought trademark rights from Beatles company
The agreement was put to the test after the California-based Apple group launched the iTunes download platform. Apple Corps accused the other party of breach of contract, but lost in court. After that, in 2007, Jobs bought all of the Beatles’ trademark rights to the Apple name.
As a result, Apple can now claim to be the owner of a trademark that has been used in the music business since 1968 – the green apple from Apple Corps can be found on Beatles records and CDs, for example. In the dispute with Bertini, the iPhone group was able to convince the first instance with the argument that it was used earlier.
However, the Court of Appeals saw a problem. The group had registered the Apple Music brand for live performances, among other things. But that was something different than the use of the Apple trademark by the Beatles for music recordings, the appeal judges decided – and rejected the registration of Apple Music. It was initially unclear whether Apple wanted to appeal and go before the US Supreme Court.
Bertini has also been distributing recorded music from his music company under the Apple Jazz name since the mid-1990s. The group launched the Apple Music streaming service in June 2015.
