The judge granted Apple Corps permission to appeal against his ruling
The judge granted Apple Corps permission to appeal against his ruling. Total costs of the action are estimated at well over £3 million. Apple Corps agreed to pay the defendant’s costs bill – put at around £2 million but still subject to detailed assessment. “We felt that during the course of the trial we clearly demonstrated just how extensively Apple Computer had broken the agreement. “We will accordingly be filing an appeal and putting the case again to the Court of Appeal.” Nicholas Valner, Apple Corps’ solicitor, said: “This is a particularly disappointing decision The judgment is curious So much of what the judge says is right. Lord Grabiner QC, representing the US company, asked Mr Justice Mann for £1.5 million interim payment for his side’s costs, which could top more than another million. Apple Corps must also pay its own legal costs, which would be a similar amount.
Neil Aspinall, manager of Apple Corps, said after the ruling was announced: “With great respect to the trial judge, we consider he has reached the wrong conclusion. Apple Corps had wanted court orders to stop Apple Computer using the “apple” marks in connection with the iTunes Music Store and damages after an investigation into Apple Computer’s profits Instead they were left with a multimillion-pound legal bill. Geoffrey Vos QC, representing Apple Corps, said Apple Computer had given the public access to 3.7 million tracks available worldwide and there had been one billion downloads through the Music Store website. All had worked well and there had been peace between the two companies until the advent of the iPod, which can be used to download and save thousands of pre-recorded tracks via the internet. The 1991 trade mark agreement gave Apple Corps exclusive rights to use “apple” marks for the record business.
It was the latest round of a battle over logos between the two companies dating back to the early 1980s. One MP accused Mr Reid of “delusional, factional nonsense”, adding “he’s completely mad”.. The Beatles lost the battle of the apple trademarks with US giant Apple Computer at the High Court today. Apple Corps, the company owned by Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of George Harrison and John Lennon, wanted multimillion-pound damages from Apple Computer over the use of the apple logo in connection with its revolutionary online iTunes Music Store.
But Mr Justice Mann ruled that Apple Computer had not breached a trade mark agreement with Apple Corps by using the logo and name to sell music. John Reid, the new Home Secretary, one of Mr Blair’s strongest supporters in the Cabinet, sparked a fresh round of backbiting after accusing Labour MPs of pursuing an agenda to “bring down” Mr Blair. In some of the most poisonous exchanges since Labour won office, opposing factions engaged in internecine warfare over Mr Blair’s determination to resist demands to quit after the party’s defeat in the local elections.
