Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxg.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!thompson
From: thompson@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: The Beatles sue Apple
Message-ID: <46700106@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 89 04:45:00 GMT
References: <1250@husc6.harvard.edu>
Lines: 46
Nf-ID: #R:husc6.harvard.edu:1250:uxf.cso.uiuc.edu:46700106:000:2336
Nf-From: uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!thompson    Mar  5 22:45:00 1989


/* Written Feb 27, 1989 by kurtzman@pollux.usc.edu in comp.sys.mac */
>
>Doesn't matter what you can tell. If Steve Jobs had been enamored of another
>fruit there would be no lawsuit. The fact is that the Beatles owned the word
>"Apple" as a trademark. And don't think that the original Apple founders didn't
>consider the benefit of the subtle, subconscious association with the Beatles.

a. I find it hard to believe that Jobs and Wozniak, in 1978, sat down
  and said, "and what's more, it'll remind people of the Beatles!!"

b. I *really* find it hard to believe that a person or company can
  trademark a common English word like "apple" and have exclusive use
  to that word in all cases.  Even though Parker Bros. owns the
  rights to "Monopoly", they cannot stop someone selling a book
  called "Monopoly".  They *can* stop someone from selling a *game*
  called "Monopoly".  Likewise, although Marvel Comics publishes
  a regular comic called "Wolverine", they do *not* have to
  pay royalties to the University of Michigan (nor vice versa).

Apple Records may have the trademark on the name *in the music
  publishing business*, but that hardly applies to computers.
  And Apple Computer is not publishing music.  I don't see where
  any lawsuit comes in.  I suppose they're trying to fudge the
  line by saying that *anything* having to *do* with music
  infringes on Apple Records' trademark, but that's silly.  That's
  like Marvel suing U of M, because Michigan prints magazines
  about the Wolverines, and that's publishing.

A more concrete example of the above: Marvel publishes a "Punisher"
  comic book.  But the folks who do the "Punisher" pulp novels
  can't/won't touch them, because:

  1. it's a different Punisher (not the same character)
  2. it's a different medium
  3. there is no reason for confusion of the two (and as I understand
     it, that *is* one of the criteria for trademark infringement).

And I would say that more people are aware of Apple Computer than
  are aware of the Apple record label.  And I do not see even the
  slightest chance of anyone confusing the two.

- Mark Thompson                       "The University Neither Knows Nor
   released on my own recognizance      Cares What I Am Saying -- Lucky
   from a Hell of my own device         Them."
  University of Illinois at U-C