News

Apple vs. Apple Case Opens in the UK

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 3:05 PM - by Staff

Apple Corps' lawsuit against Apple Computer opened in England on Wednesday, with Apple Corps attorney Geoffrey Vos playing an iTunes ad and calling it "as flagrant a violation of this agreement as it is possible to imagine." IDG News writer Jeremy Kirk, who was on hand for the proceedings, said that Mr. Vos' argument centered around Apple Computer's use of an apple logo to advertise the iTunes Music Store.

Apple Corps wants an injunction ordered by the presiding judge, Justice Edward Mann, which would require Apple Computer to remove its logo from all iTunes promotions and presumably create a new one for all marketing and advertising. Mr. Kirk said that Apple Corps presented its case in court with widescreen monitors that showcased the iTunes ad, as well as other demonstrations of alleged trademark violations.

The reporter also noted that Mr. Mann has said that he has used iTunes but has not purchased any music through it. "Mann has been widely reported as owning an iPod, but he has continued to hear the case. The trial is expected to continue throughout the week," Mr. Kirk wrote.

As The Mac Observer explained when it covered news of the lawsuit going to court this week, Apple Computer has said that its agreement with Apple Corps only applies to selling music on cassette and CDs, not as digital downloads. Apple Corps has previously sued Apple Computer twice over trademark infringement, winning settlements both times, and filed the current lawsuit almost three years ago.

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Brutno said:

member since 28 Aug 2002 with 198 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 29, 2006 5:29 pm

I hope Apple finally wins this ridiculous argument. Arguing over a trademark that has long since been marginalized is a waste of any court's time. Seriously, when is the last time you bought anything with the Apple Corps. logo on it? If it was "1" then look closely at what resembles the Apple Corps. logo on the back of the jewel case. It bears no resemblence to Apple's stylised logo with the bite.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:29 pm

Apple Corps logo- Red real life Apple, Apple Computer- Rainbow 2d Apple with bite (early) White 2d Apple with bite (new), I dont see the connection here. If this suit is over the logo then where was the suit back in the early days of Apple? If I recall correctly Apple Corps went into a fit whan Apple released the Apple ][gs with the Ensoniq chip, enabling the GS to make actual music, since that suit back in the days of the GS Apple has not used a Synth chip in a computer to date. Just seems to me that Apple corpse (Insert baby cry here) is looking at Apple Computer as its Apple seed (pun intended). I have a vast collection of Lp's and CD's and the only Artist on the Apple Corpse label in my collection is the Beatles. Time to lead them out to pasture and let them rot.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:38 pm

Kind of ammusing that when you go to www.applecorps.com/ your presented with a placeholder page. Way to have web presence guys! I assume they are waiting to see if they win the case to pay the web designer to finish their site.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:40 pm

I correct myself above, Green real life apple not red.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:44 pm

Perhaps these guys are next in the "apple" logo trademark fiasco www.mocse.org/ . Afterall dont these guys sell CD's?

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:55 pm

Is it just me? Or does everyone else see the difference:

http://homepage.mac.com/lsinger9404/PhotoAlbum91.html

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Rainy Day said:

member since 07 Jun 2005 with 607 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:29 pm

Time to compost the Apple Corpse. Greedy bastards. Their case is very very weak, at best.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:07 pm

Yeah, this is all about greed... just another company that thinks they can make out by suing Apple and get some cash out of them because of the success they've had. It's no different than the jackass who's suing them because he was too stupid to not turn the volume on his iPod up all the way and not damage his hearing. Too bad we can't just shoot people like that and clean the slime out of the gene pool in doing so...

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:38 pm

<rant>

Not really related, but can't anyone spell CDs correctly? CDs, LPs, DVDs.

Not 's, just an s, CDs.

Nuts...

</rant>

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Mar 30, 2006 12:42 am

Sosumi info...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosumi

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:26 am

i hope apple computers lose this, bout time someone taught them a lesson

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:26 pm

To those with zero tolerance for "spelling" - but note that the apostraphe is an item of punctuation not spelling - I quote from the most punctilious punctuator:

"Until quite recently, it was customary to write '"MP's" and "1980's" - and in fact this convention still applies in America."

Lynn Truss, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" (2003).

Lynn Truss, as you might guess, is British.

So, CDs in the UK, but CD's are quite acceptable in the US.

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