Apple has almost 8 years after starting his music streaming service suffered a setback in the dispute over the associated brand name in the USA. A Court of Appeal in Washington sided with a musician on Tuesday who is taking action against the registration of the Apple Music name.
The trumpeter Charles Bertini claims that he has owned the brand since 1985 Apple Jazz among other things for live performances and see a risk of confusion.
The Beatles sued Apple
Apple’s path to using its own company name on everything music-related has been difficult before – and that has to do with the Beatles to do. The members of the legendary band posed 1968 the London company Apple Corps for business related to their music.
10 years later, Apple Corps sued the von Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak newly founded company Apple Computer with allegations of 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.
The agreement was put to the test after the California-based Apple group lost the download platform iTunes started. 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.
Brand name registration denied
As a result, Apple can now refer to being the owner of a trademark that has been used in the music business since 1968 – the green apple from Apple Corps can be found, for example records and CDs the beatles In the dispute with Bertini, the iPhone group was able to first instance persuade with the argument of earlier use.
However, the Court of Appeals saw a problem. The group had the Apple Music brand for, among other things live performances Registered. But that was something different than the use of the Apple brand by the Beatles for music recordings, the appeal judges decided – and rejected Registration from Apple Music.
It was initially unclear whether Apple wanted to appeal and go before the US Supreme Court. Bertini has been selling under the name since the mid-1990s Apple Jazz also recorded music from his music company. The group launched the Apple Music streaming service in June 2015.
