Apple owns The Beatles… literally, kinda
If you ever doubted the fact that Apple is taking over the world, this news should be the final nail in that coffin full of doubts.
Apple, as in Apple Inc., the U.S. company founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and responsible for all those iDevices you now see everybody using on a daily basis, now owns the logo of Apple Corps., the company founded by British pop group The Beatles, and responsible for all those songs you hear from time to time but not really enough these days.
As first reported by Patently Apple, the Apple Corps. logo that is pictured above is now a registered trademark of Apple Inc. A sad day for fans of The Beatles, but a happy day for the two surviving band members and the estates of the two that have passed. Because it’s thought to have cost Apple Inc. around $500 million to acquire the logo.
The Apple Inc. vs. Apple Corps. dispute dates all the way back to 1978, when The Beatles’ holding company sued Jobs and co. over the name and logo of the company. An agreement was reached whereby Apple Inc. agreed never to enter the music business, and Apple Corps. agreed never to enter the computer business.
At various points through the succeeding decades the companies came to blows after Apple Inc. started including music elements in its products. The whole thing culminated with the unveiling of iTunes, and a court case ensued. Apple Inc. won and a final agreement was made whereby the tech company would buy all the trademarks related to ‘apple’ for a cool $500 million.
It’s now official, with the Canadian IP Office declaring that Apple Inc. owns the trademark that once graced the middle of every vinyl record released by The Beatles. This may go down as the biggest case of selling out of all time.
October 26th, 2012
tanks for the information its too impressive