Beatles, Apple, Inc. Settle Up (again) Over Use of Logo

When Beatlesmania ran rampant across America in the mid-1960s, the novelty of a personal computer was still more than a decade away. After the band from Liverpool, England, had released their final album, "Let it Be" in 1970, thirty-three-RPM LPs still dominated peoples' music libraries. A record was in fact still a record, and the notion that one could carry every hit single, not to mention the entire Beatles' archive on a single device that fits in the palm of the hand, was the stuff of science fiction.

But those crates full of vinyl have indeed been replaced by the iPod.

Only two of the Fab Four are still with us today. Yet Apple Corp, the record company and multimedia corporation founded by the Beatles in 1968, is embroiled in 30-year legal dispute with Apple Computer, Inc. over the image of a little green apple. Apple Corp today is owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) and the estate of George Harrison. Its primary concern is to supervise the licensing of Beatles-related merchandise and the reissuing of Beatles music.

To date, Apple Corp has not granted Apple Computer, Inc. (recently renamed "Apple, Inc.") permission to host Beatles music in its vast iTunes library. And until they do, there will be no downloading via iTunes of "Revolution," "Hey Jude" or "Magical Mystery Tour" for fans of the Fab Four to their iPods.

Ironically, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers, Inc. is reportedly a huge Beatles fan and originally chose the Apple name in tribute to his favorite band.

The first lawsuit came in 1978. John, Paul, George and Ringo sued Jobs and his business partner Steve Wozniak over trademark infringement. The nascent computer company had then used a green Granny Smith apple -- virtually the same logo as the Fab Four's recording company -- and in 1981 paid a cool $80,000 while promising to forever eschew the music business.