Judge set to reach core in battle of big Apples

A HIGH Court judge rules today in the latest battle between the big apples — the Beatles’ Apple Corps and Apple Computer.

Apple Corps accused the US company of breaching a trademark agreement by selling music in the latest round of a multi-million pound battle over logos dating back to the early 1980s.

Each company had agreed a “field of use” of the Apple mark. But Apple Corps claimed the pledge not to sell music was breached by Apple Computer’s online iTunes Music Store.

Geoffrey Vos QC, representing Apple Corps, told Mr Justice Mann at London’s High Court in March that to call the download system just an electronic device was a “perversion” of the constraints agreed by the two companies.

He said Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computer, had said the downloading of music from the internet was exactly the same as buying an LP in the modern world.