Apple Versus Apple

On Wednesday, Apple Computer is facing Apple Corps in court in the latest installment of their legal battle. Apple Corps is claiming the introduction of iTunes broke the former settlement between the two, a settlement in which Apple Computer agreed to stay away from the music business.

This has been going on for some time. In 1976, Apple Computer was founded, with the rainbow colored Apple logo, five years later, Apple Corps sued, resulting in a settlement of $80,000 and the promise that Apple would stay out of the music business. Then, in 1989, after Apple Computer introduced a program for making music, they were sued once again, and settled for $26 million in 1991. Apple Corps was awarded rights to the name on "creative works whose principal content is music" while Apple Computer was allowed "goods and services… used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such content". Most importantly, the agreement prevented Apple Computer from distributing content on physical media. As the term clearly denotes, this was intended to cover CDs and tapes, which were in use at the time, but it is unclear if it includes later inventions such as digital music files or the devices that play them.

The case has been scheduled to begin on Wednesday, before Mr. Justice Mann. Mann is no stranger to either music or Apple Computer products, having inquired some time ago, of both sides, whether he should disqualify himself from hearing the case because he owned an iPod.