Apple Corps., the management company for The Beatles, will get its day in London court, not San Jose. So says a ruling from London’s High Court reported Tuesday by Reuters.
Apple Computer and Apple Corps. have a long history of duking it out in legal battles — the companies last wrangled in the early 1990s when they agreed to a settlement that specified that Apple Computer would keep its trademark on computers, not music. That changed with last year’s introduction of the iTunes Music Store, Apple’s commercial music download service. Apple Corps. claims that Apple broke the agreement when the company launched the iTunes Music Store.
Apple requested that the case be heard before a judge in the United States rather than the United Kingdom. Apple said that since the agreement between itself and Apple Corps. was made in the U.S., the case should be heard there. A London High Court judge disagreed, so the case will proceed in the U.K. instead.