Apple Inc., the company formerly known as Apple Computer, and the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. have settled their trademark dispute yet again. Apple Inc., which dropped the word computer from its name last month, will own all of the trademarks related to “Apple”—and will license some of them back to the older company for continued use. Each company will cover its own legal costs in the latest dispute, which had to do with Apple Inc.’s iTunes store; under the previous agreement, the Beatles’ label argued the U.S. company wasn’t supposed to sell music using the Apple trademark. But the music label lost its latest battle in the U.K. last May, where a judge sided with Apple Inc. His ruling: iTunes was true to the spirit of the agreement since the company only sold music, it didn’t create it. Apple Corps. was supposed to pick up Apple Inc.’s legal costs, estimated at several million dollars at that point, and said it would appeal. Steve Jobs said at the time he hoped the two companies would be able to work together to put the digital holdouts on iTunes and it has since been rumored that the Beatles, expected to finally go digital in the very near future, would be exclusive to iTunes. No mention of a music deal in today’s announcement, though. Release.
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