iTunes daddies beat The Beatles in Apple case

The long-running legal saga of Apple versus Apple has reached some kind of conclusion today, as the High Court came to the decision that Apple Computers was not in breach of a trade mark agreement dating back to 1991 between them and Apple Corps, the label/imprint established by The Beatles.

Apple Corps, which is currently owned by the remaining Beatles, Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison, had hoped that Apple Computers' establishment of iTunes had violated the aforementioned agreement, which declared that Apple Computers may not make money from the sale of records, basically.

Mr Justice Mann decided that Apple Computers' iTunes store was not bound by the terms of the trade mark agreement, saying: "I find no breach of the trade mark agreement has been demonstrated. The action therefore fails."

The winning argument was that iTunes was a data transmission service, something that is permitted under the terms of the 1991 agreement. Apple Corps is to appeal the decision.